


Time's Revelation

by HawkTooth



Series: Two Worlds Collide [4]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Biblical Scripture References (Abrahamic Religions), F/M, Humor, References to Norse Religion & Lore, Supernatural Elements, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-06-26 08:31:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 21
Words: 65,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19764436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HawkTooth/pseuds/HawkTooth
Summary: Book 4 of the Two Worlds Collide Series. A refugee from a distant place is on the run from a power of ancient times. When she crosses paths with Hiccup, Hawken and the others, history will be unveiled like never before, but are they ready for the secrets that are going to come to light? Sometimes, the shroud of past events can be better left uncovered...





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> And welcome to the 4th installment of the Two Worlds Collide Series! Just as a reminder, if you haven't read (or at least skimmed; I know, they're not all that fantastic writing) the first three books, you're going to want to or else you'll be lost here. If you have, the story only gets better from here out, and this world we're building is going to get even bigger and more heavily steeped in history, myths, and lore.

She had been running all night long, not a moment to take a breath. They had kept after her even after she’d escaped past Rome, and then further west to the coast of the Atlantic and the North Sea, always just behind and waiting for her to slow, to falter.

She dove to the side as yet another came screaming down after her, materializing just long enough to inflict a long gash across her shoulder, claws open and demonic eyes blazing in hatred and anger when it missed its original target. She knew why they were after her, and that they wouldn’t give up. The only solace was that for some reason they no longer appeared in physical form unless they absolutely had to, so she had been able to avoid them easier for a time. It didn’t matter though if they managed to find a way to catch her permanently, as only if she was able to reach her destination would everything fall apart finally. With that thought in mind she continued to push on, long blazing hair glinting behind her in the moonlight.

There! Ahead, lights from burning lanterns and torches within a small coastal village flickered into view. The demons pulled away, disappearing completely from view but still hissing threats that they would be back before they vanished into the night. The girl slowed down as she reached the edge of the civilized place, but she knew she couldn’t stop anymore until she reached her goal. If she stayed in the village, while the demons wouldn’t show themselves something else always arrived later, and she wouldn’t be responsible for any more destruction, not after the last time.

She sprinted through the village, unseen and unheard, soon reaching a small beach with a couple of short docks extending outward, small fishing vessels lining them. She took only a moment to catch her breath, having been running all out for hours, before running along the docks and picking a boat, throwing what few provisions she had on her in and jumping in after. She untied the mooring lines and pushed the boat outward, taking the oars and steering herself out into the bay. Once far enough along, she raised the small sail and set down the rudder, catching the wind and waves and riding out into the sea. Crossing from here to the islands would take at least two days at best she knew, as she hustled around preparing the boat for an excursion longer than what the fishermen usually took. She felt bad for stealing the craft, but at this point there was no other choice.

For an hour, everything still seemed fine. The breeze was gentle, and the current below was steering her in the right direction. Not long after, however, the wind began to pick up, whipping the surface of the ocean into whitecaps. Thunder broke the sky a moment later, and something big surged beneath her, ramming into the small vessel with force enough to spin it in a full circle. They were back, she knew, and this time there was nowhere to run, and nothing to fight with. The girl was certain she would not last the night.


	2. Chapter 1: Winter's Arrival

“Hey Hawken! Move over so I can work here!”

I sighed as I turned around and leaned against the table where my already half-done experiment lay strewn across the space. “Seth, we’ve gone over this before. There is limited space at each of the stations, you can wait your turn or go to the other one that’s open, and if you really need that much room there are three completely open tables that you could commandeer today. Back off.”

It was early December, and I was in my last chemistry lab for the year. I had become well accustomed to the stress of college, the ups and down that came with the professors’ uncanny ability to assign homework and tests all in the same week and the crazy schedule that left me all over the place. All in all though it wasn’t too terrible. I never liked school anyway, but I could at least tolerate it. There was still one problem I had yet to really tend to: Seth.

A tall, well-built guy, Seth was used to getting his own way most of the time, and it showed as he rarely ever took no for an answer. He was from a rather remote town in the American Southwest, and was one of the very few people left around who hadn’t picked up on the story of the dragon kid. No one at the college had told him due to my insistence after I’d first run into the guy, and since I kept my flights to the down low when coming and going he was still in the dark. I wanted to see just what kind of character he was, how far he’d push me before I decided it was far enough. Until now, he had backed off with little more than terse words and some prodding from the other students around.

“You always get the best scores around here, and I’m thinking it’s because you get to the best stations first. Or maybe you’re just the teacher’s pet,” Seth said none-too-kindly. Without another thought he pushed all my papers out of the way and put his own things down where I was. Then, he moved my materials down the table, and sat down, not thinking twice about his actions this time.

I glanced at the teacher’s assistant, who nodded. I’d managed to get the faculty on my side in this, just for one good example to be made. I wasn’t the only person Seth thought himself superior to, and he’d managed to get on the less pleasant side of some of the professors as well. Now, however, the issue had gone on long enough, and after nearly the whole semester of letting it slide and letting Seth build up his attitude, he’d managed to boil the kettle. I had the teacher’s approval, and Seth had picked the worst time to be a jerk, so it was time to put him to rights.

I glanced around and my eyes settled on a beaker of water sitting on a hot plate nearby, boiling away. I meandered over, leaned next to it, and said to Seth, “Out of curiosity, what makes you think it’s okay to displace another student in the middle of the final exam lab?” He glanced up at me, and replied, “Just you.” While he looked my way, I lifted up my hand and placed it casually into the beaker, watching with great entertainment as the look on his face went from a smirk as he thought I would burn myself, to concern when I just sat there, like nothing was out of the ordinary.

“Okay, next question,” I began, “what makes you think it’s a good idea to tick off the one kid who doesn’t get burned by boiling water?” He didn’t have an answer for that, so I continued. “Yeah, I would think if someone could tolerate that, then there’s a lot more that they could probably do too. Wouldn’t be a good idea to get them really mad, now would it?” This time, he slowly shook his head in response, catching onto the snickers also starting to circle the room. Everyone knew something he didn’t, and it didn’t bode well for the bully.

I removed my hand from the beaker, and picked it up, holding the glass carefully and continuing to heat it, so that it boiled in my hand. “Well, would you look at that,” I marveled mockingly, then glanced back at Seth, who’d gone a little pale. It’s one thing to have high pain tolerance; it’s another to make water vaporize at a touch. I smirked and carefully set the beaker down on the hot plate, then placed my hands on the table in front of Seth, bending over to look him in the eyes.

“Around late April there were some very shocking stories that went around, about a kid who could do some rather impossible things. Did you happen to hear any of it?” Seth stammered as he answered. “I-I thought it w-was a hoax. There’s no way it could be possible, not by any measure we know.” I chuckled, and lit my hands on fire, guiding the flames along a field so they spiraled up my arms. “Well, now I’m sure you can put the pieces together, that you personally know the boy those stories were about,” I drawled, wrapping the pair of flames around my neck like a choker and then driving them down my arms again. “For future reference, I would suggest you be very careful about who you put down. I don’t like being displaced, and neither do the other students I’ve seen you push around here. So shape up, and start by giving me back my seat so I can finish my exam.” The flames went out with a hiss as my eyes flashed bright green.

Within thirty seconds Seth was on the other side of the room, quietly dealing with his own work on a very empty table as far from me as possible, and trying to ignore the laughs everyone was having at his expense. I sat down again as well as I rearranged my work, smiling to myself. There were no problems whatsoever for the rest of the day.

* * *

As I left the campus after the lab, clouds were beginning to build up in the sky, and I could see swirls of snow nearing. Two fronts were moving in, one directly from the north and one from the southeast, and both looked bad. I morphed into a Blizzard dragon and took off, holding my books tightly to my chest to keep them out of the weather. By the time I landed at home though, the dragon’s name already matched the weather. There was one odd difference: this storm had lightning in it. I hurried inside and dropped off my stuff, before setting down in a chair to take a breath. My mom was already home surprisingly, cooking dinner.

“Weather’s gone crazy out there,” I said as I pulled out the last of my homework for the year. My mom nodded. “It was clear all day too,” she noted, “and yet we’ve had notices that there may be closures tomorrow. And the next day. It’s supposed to be bad.” I sighed. “Well, then, I’d better get this done quickly and get to Berk, they’ll probably be needing my help.” My mom gave me a questioning look.

I sighed. “As odd as it sounds, the weather here and there tend to somewhat mimic each other,” I explained. “Granted they get storms a lot more often than we, but when we have one, they never fail to either.” “I see,” she said, and turned back to whatever was on the stove.

* * *

I was right when I had predicted Berk needed help. When I slipped into the portal (kept clear of the snow partly by myself and partly by the temporal effect of the anomaly), I was almost immediately flattened by driving rain and wind. I found that odd in itself too, as here it was a regular thunderstorm while we got snow back home, but shook it off for now. Going for the smart option, I changed into Shadow form instead of trying to battle the elements, and dissolved into the now very dark woods, racing at blinding speed toward the village. Most of the houses were already boarded up, and what few Vikings were brave or mad enough to be out in the gale were hustling about trying to get supplies put away or tied down. I materialized and rushed up to one of the men nearby, a fellow named Mulch. You might know him already.

“Hey Mulch, do you happen to know where Stoick is?” I yelled over the wind. He started at seeing me appear so suddenly, but shook it off and pointed toward the docks. “He’s down that way with the dragons, tryin’ te get the ships safely moored!” he yelled back. I nodded and turned to leave. “Thanks!”

I dematerialized again and raced down to the docks where, as Mulch had said, Stoick and Hiccup were helping direct the dragons to help move the ships up onto the repair platforms so they were out of the waves. Out at sea, the whitecaps were quickly growing, and once they reached the shore they would bash anything left in the water to pieces on the docks and cliffs. I materialized again and dove into the water, morphing a Doomfang and starting to push the boats up onto the platforms. As I did so, I glanced down at Hiccup and Stoick.

“Need some help here?” I asked, smiling as they both jumped in surprise. “Good te see ye here,” Stoick yelled up. “We were wonderin’ if ye’d turn up! This storm’s getting’ worse and we need the ships tied town before the worst of it hits here!"

* * *

Half an hour later found the whole village locked up tight inside their houses, me saying inside with Hiccup, Stoick, and Toothless. The wind howled furiously outside as rain pounded against the roof and walls. I had morphed Night Fury to help stave off the cold seeping in, and we were all currently huddled around the firepit.

<There’s something not right about this storm,> Toothless muttered. I nodded. <I know what you mean,> I muttered back, before looking over at Stoick. “When did the storm show up?” He shook his head in confusion. “Well, that there is the weird part,” he replied. “Usually we get notice of approaching fronts up to a day or more in advance thanks to Bucket”- “Barometric pressure,” I mused, interrupting. Stoick gave me a look, before continuing, “But today it was completely clear all mornin’, and only a few hours ago did Bucket start having his, uh, ‘bucket issues.’ Not minutes later the black clouds showed on the horizon. The first we saw were right over the mainland, and usually storms blow over us and continue that way, but this one raced straight toward the island. Another formed out te see like normal and met the first here.” He looked at me, before glancing and the boarded up windows, a concerned expression growing on his face. “I don’t like it a bit. Usually we’re getting snow this time o’ year, but instead the thunderstorm of the century arrives.”

I nodded in response and looked at the door over my back, where wind was howling through the cracks. “We had two huge storms show up over my town too, just like here; one from the usual north and one from a completely different direction. The system’s predicted to drop like three feet of snow on us over about three days. And we’ve barely even had a few frosts yet this year.” I sighed as we all looked at each other with concerned frowns. “Even more, it’s a literal winter lightning storm as well as a blizzard right now. If that’s not a really bad omen I’m set to wonder what is.”

They nodded in agreement. The weather was acting impossibly strangely, and while winter appeared to have finally arrived, there was nothing normal about it this year.

* * *

Ten miles to the southeast, the broken remains of a small boat rode the raging waves, barely staying afloat and drifting slowly toward Berk.


	3. Chapter 2: Storm's Aftermath

The storm in Berk lasted for two whole days, howling with the ferocity of the Red Death itself. By the time it ended, everything was ruined. Sure, the houses were all still standing, but plenty of shingles and other bits of roof and siding were missing, and anything at all that had been left outside was nowhere to be seen. At all. The torrents of rain and sleet left canyons in the roads and paths around the village, making travel by foot dangerous, and we had also lost one ship when part of a nearby sea stack broke off and came crashing down, nailing the vessel to the ground permanently.

I stayed in Berk as much as I could, however. Though certain dragons are almost completely impervious to cold or heat, I still don’t like snow, and my home was already covered in nearly two feet of it, with more on the way. Everything was being shut down and, while granted it was now the weekend so the weather wasn’t really affecting things yet, the storm showed no signs of letting up. At Berk, on the other hand, there were only a few layers of thin clouds left from the tempest.

Toothless stepped outside and stretched, yawning dramatically before looking up at the fading traces of dark sky. Hiccup and I stepped out next to him. “Well, now that the storm’s over we have something to do, right?” I asked, trying to lighten the mood. Hiccup snorted in reply. “Yeah, right. I always wanted to spend a whole day patching up roofs and making nails,” he grumbled.

<Oh, come on, it can’t be all bad,> Toothless said, coming up and nuzzling Hiccup’s hand. <Besides, I’ll be there to help.> Hiccup smiled and rubbed the dragon’s head, gathering the gist of the message. “Yeah, thanks bud.”

* * *

As predicted, we spent most of the day in the forge, hammering out nails, posts, and other various small tools needed to patch things up. Toothless kept the fire going while I, meanwhile, held the red-hot metal steady for Hiccup to shape. After that was done (and after Gobber shoved us out, stating he needed room for bigger projects now), the rest of the day was spent patching up the Haddock’s roof. While there were no major holes (and thank goodness otherwise Hiccup would have thrown a fit over his papers getting rained on), there were plenty of missing shingles. Occasional gusts of wind coming off the receding clouds didn’t help, though, and Toothless and I ended up catching Hiccup and Stoick as they were blown off the slick roof more times than I care to count.

Eventually, though, the house was patched up, and what was left was the domain of other handymen. And praise be for their adeptness at making repairs thanks to bygone days, otherwise what was going to take maybe a couple days would have taken nearly a week to complete. With our hands cleared, the gang finally got together to take a break and fly, something none of us had done since sometime before the storm hit.

“This weather is so weird,” Astrid commented as we later settled on one of the sea stacks for a short break. “I mean, by now we’re usually hunkered down, relying on the farm animals and the storehouses for everything, but instead we’re still able to go out hunting in rather balmy weather, and flying in this air is still tolerable. It’s not normal.”

“Is it really a bad thing though?” Hiccup returned. “I mean, sure we’re used to nine months of technical winter up here, but I’m kind of liking this warm weather myself.” Naturally, they all glanced at me, expecting some sort of educated answer for the phenomenon. Instead, their looks gave me an unsettling feeling.

“What? You think I know what’s causing the change?” I asked. “Weather does strange things all the time. I mean, we’ve been dealing with wild fluxes in my world for some years now and it’s got everyone on edge about global warming or a new ice age, or whatever else they’ve cooked up by now. No one knows exactly why it is though.”

<I don’t think this is completely caused by nature though, Hawken,> Barfbelch noted, lifting his heads up and nearly dumping the twins off, much to everyone’s amusement. I raised an eyebrow for clarification.

<Barfbelch is right,> Fireworm said. <I think I speak for all the dragons when I say we’ve been feeling a bit antsy recently. No visiting dragons have passed through here for a couple weeks now, and the fish stocks have dropped rather noticeably. The storm might have been natural, but it still feels like an omen. Something’s coming.>

I nodded and looked at the Vikings, who were all waiting to hear what the dragons had said. I sighed and rubbed my forehead, wincing as I forgot about having claws at the moment.

“The dragons think the storm might have some meaning, and I’d bet they’re right,” I spoke aloud. “I’ve been getting feelings, premonitions for a little while that there has been something off. Something’s coming, I think, though I have absolutely no prediction as to what.”

“Well, if it’s anything like the past few incidents we’ve had, another one of those books you read might have the key,” Fishlegs noted. “Should we tell Stoick?” I shook my head. “No. We don’t even know what it is yet, or whether or not the dragons and I are just being paranoid. That happens too. But for now, everyone just keep your eyes and ears open for anything unusual.” Snotlout raised his hand and started to say something, but I cut him off. “No, the twins and their antics do not count as something unusual,” I quipped. His mouth closed and he pouted, ignoring the snickers from said pair. The rest of the group just nodded, and we all decided we’d been sitting there long enough, and so took off in the direction of the village again.

On the way there, however, I told Astrid, Hiccup, and of course their dragons to follow me. The rest of the gang headed back, while we circled around toward the cove. As we landed, I morphed back human and took a seat on a rock, waiting while Astrid and Hiccup dismounted and followed my example. The sitting on the rock, part, mind you, not the morphing.

<Thorn, Toothless, you may want to find some cover,> I advised, and they nodded and sauntered over to the protected grove of trees at one end of the cove. “Hey, where are they going?” Astrid asked, getting up to call them back over before I held her back with an outstretched tail. “Don’t worry about them,” I reassured. “I told them to keep low for a little while. You’ll understand in a second.” I looked then at Hiccup. “Any new information about Framherja?”

Hiccup’s eyes widened slightly, before they closed as he let out a groan and reached back, pulling the almost humming bow out from inside his vest. He had constructed a larger pocket inside the back of his vest to better accommodate it, and keep it hidden from other prying eyes.

“Personally, I’m at a loss as to why you gave me such a useless thing,” he said, looking it over. “I mean sure, it’s nice to look at but I’ve found no practicality to it.” He set Framherja against the rock he sat on as he continued to rant. “I’ve tried every kind of ammunition I could possibly think of: oak and black cedar arrows, even one of those rare rosewood ones, all sorts of metal, rocks, and I even fashioned some arrows out of hardened bones to try. After three months you’d think I’d hit upon something, or maybe find a new method to shoot it that managed to work, but no. Every _single_ one has either gone up in flames, melted, or exploded on me.” He held up his arm to show the healing scabs from a splinter attack recently caused by one of the incompatible arrows used with the bow.

“By the way, if you don’t mind me asking Hawken,” he said, gesturing to the injury. I nodded and reached forward, placing a finger over the spot and focusing. No sooner had I done so than the familiar wave of energy ran down my hand and into the wound, closing up the scrapes as if they were never there. Then I sat back as Hiccup readjusted his sleeve again.

“Anyway, back to the subject,” I drawled, “is there anything left you haven’t tried?” I asked. He shrugged. “Well, I recently managed to get ahold of a gold and silver arrow from that last exotic trading ship that came up this way. Johann has nothing new for me to use, but I thought they might.” “What did you trade them to get arrows like that?” Astrid asked curiously. Hiccup immediately made a face. “Uh, you don’t want to know,” he said, casting a quick glance over toward Toothless, who visibly shuddered as well. I raised an eyebrow, but at that point decided it better if I didn’t ask. “Do you have them with you?” I instead queried. Hiccup nodded, and reached into his pack nearby to pull them out.

Sure enough, one of them was pure gold, however the other turned out to be an arrow of platinum instead of silver. I told Hiccup this, and his eyes brightened. “So I’ve really got a fortune here that I’m going to be shooting, don’t I?” he mused. I nodded. Then he shrugged, and grabbed the gold arrow. “Might as well try this one first, makes the most sense. Though I wonder how well a metal this soft can really be used….”

As Hiccup strung the arrow and aimed for a nearby tree (and one that clearly had been used for practice before), I noticed Astrid slowly moving to stand behind a rather large boulder. She’d been present before as well during some of Hiccup’s “tests,” so I deemed it wise to follow her lead, and spread a pair of rock-hard wings in front of me, before turning my attention to Hiccup again.

He nocked the arrow on the string, lifted up the weapon to aim at the target, and just as he was pulling back the string to full capacity to release….

BZZZZZZZZTTT!!! FWOOSHH!!

A bolt of energy raced down the length of the arrow, and the metal immediately liquefied. Hiccup yelped and dropped the bow straight away, barely avoiding the molten metal dripping down. As it hit the ground, the grass sizzled around the metal before it solidified again in a shapeless blob.

“And that is _exactly_ what I mean,” Hiccup snapped, sitting down and dropping his hand into the pond just to make sure there was nothing burning on it.

* * *

The platinum arrow fared no better, and I even went as far as taking Hiccup’s suggestion and molding an arrow of ice from the pond, but that ended similarly, with all of us splattered with half-melted slush.

“I’m out of ideas,” Hiccup relented after that. “I mean, come on. She’s a bow. She should be able to fire _something_ , but nothing has worked at all!” He sighed and slumped against a rock, dropping Framherja at his side. Toothless, deeming it safe to reappear now, slid out of the grove of trees and curled up around him. Thorn stayed asleep where she was.

“Maybe we need to find another guardian for the arrows,” Astrid suggested, leaning against a small pine. “I mean, we got this from one, maybe another has the ammunition, some sort of ploy to keep the wrong person from getting their hands on it.” “You know that wouldn’t be it, Astrid,” Hiccup pointed out. “Only a select few people supposedly can touch the thing, though granted we haven’t been brave enough to test that.” Astrid shrugged. “Well, the answer’s got to be somewhere. You have a point that even a bow as impressive as that is useless unless there’s a method to make it wo”-

<Hawken! Where are you?!>

The roar silenced us all, and I could hear crashing bushes and creaking trees heading our way. <Down here!> I roared back. A flash of green appeared at the edge of the cove, before changing to gray, then back to green as it came down the side. I stood up as the figure approached.

“Spitfire, what’s going on?” The Changewing skidded to a stop in front of me, finally becoming wholly visible and clearly out of breath. <There’s….a boat…on the eastern beach. I…was down there….looking for missing ship pieces….> he stopped for a moment to actually catch his breath before looking back up at me with urgency. <Hawken, there’s another boat down there. It was smashed up pretty badly, and really small for being seagoing but….but, I think there’s somebody underneath it.>


	4. Chapter 3: Castaway

<Did you try to get anyone else’s attention?> I asked as the six of us sped through the skies. I had told Hiccup and Astrid what Spitfire told me, and neither of them wasted any time in taking off to help.

<You’re the only one here who understands both groups, Hawken,> Spitfire pointed out. <No one else would have figured out what I was trying to tell them.> I nodded and sighed, before focusing again on our destination.

The southern inhabited portion of the island is relatively small, so the flight from the cove to the eastern edge only took about three minutes, at the speed we were going at least. As we crested the ridge separating the beach from the rest of the island, I immediately spotted what Spitfire had been talking about: almost directly below us were the remains of a small wooden dinghy, way too small to be used for seafaring even in good weather and clearly not from Berk either. One end was completely shattered, though to my eyes it didn’t look like the damage a wave would produce, and it was overturned and dug into the sand. There didn’t appear to be anything alive from our perspective, but we were still fairly high up and couldn’t see underneath. I dove down and landed, morphing to a Viperwyrm and sliding up to the boat. The others landed nearby.

“See anything?” Hiccup asked, jumping off toothless and running up to me as I stuck my head carefully through a hole in the side. Not two seconds later I jerked back, removing myself from the boat and scooting away for a moment.

“Y-Yeah, there’s something in there,” I said quietly, “or more precisely, someone.” I morphed again back to Night Fury, and walked up to the vessel, digging my paws under the edge carefully. I couldn’t just pull up though without risking the thing snapping apart however, so I nodded to Toothless. <Hey Toothless, give me a hand here. Grab the other end!> He sprinted over and nudged his nose under what was left of the railing. <Okay, ready? One, two…three!>

The boat fell in half anyway, but we managed to tip it up and over the other direction and away from what was underneath. Lying there in the sand, completely unmoving, was a girl. She looked to be about our age, maybe 18 or 19, with pale skin and straight, brownish-red hair, not unlike a mix between Hiccup’s and mine, at least in the lower light given by the overcast sky. She also sported a substantial tan; definitely not a local, nor even from anywhere within a few hundred miles.

More importantly, however, her lips and fingers were both tinted a dangerously deep blue, and I could see it slowly beginning to spread.

Astrid knelt down next to the girl and put her fingers to the girl’s neck. After a moment, her eyes widened, and she said, “She’s still got a pulse!” She looked up at me. “Can you carry her, safely? She needs to get to my mother, and fast! We don’t have a moment to lose!” I nodded and, carefully, Hiccup helped Astrid lift the girl up and lay her across my back.

“Now go!” Astrid said loudly. “We can’t waste any time. Hiccup and I will meet you there in a minute!” I nodded, turning carefully, and then pushed myself off the ground and into the air toward the village, being very cautious not to accidentally tip my unconscious passenger off my back.

Very shortly, I landed in front of Astrid’s home, and called for her mother. “Sigrid? Are you here? We need your help, and pronto!” There was a moment’s silence, then the door swung open, revealing Sigrid Hofferson. “H-Hawken? What happened? Why are you here?” she asked, stepping out. I turned to reveal our castaway. “Spitfire found her on the eastern beach, under a shipwrecked boat. She needs help, and quickly since she’s already turning blue.”

Sigrid ran over to check the girl, before heading back to the house and motioning me to follow. “Yes, bring her in immediately, she needs to be made warm,” she said. I followed behind her, carrying the girl through the short hallway into the house, where Sigrid carefully picked her up and laid her out onto the nearest bed.

“Light the bedside fire there,” Sigrid pointed, waiting for me to do so before handing me a couple of heavy quilts, “and lay her under these. If her temperature isn’t brought up quickly she’ll die of hypothermia. And this time of year that’s an extremely high likeliness. I’ll go get my herbs.” I did as I was told, and waited. By the time she came back into the room with her bottles and jars of herbs and salves, Hiccup and Astrid had also arrived.

“Good you’re here,” Sigrid said, and handed Astrid and Hiccup both a bundle of bulbs and leaves. “Astrid, you know the recipe for the tea, you and Hiccup go and prepare a kettle’s worth. And while you’re in there start some water as well for the hot packs. I need to check her for other injuries.” As the two other teens headed through the door into the kitchen, Sigrid carefully pulled back the quilts on one side, and began checking the girl over from the head down. Respectfully, I kept my head turned, until Sigrid whistled, and pointed to our patient.

Halfway down her abdomen, she sported a shallow but long gash. Sigrid looked up at me. “Can you heal this? It will simplify our other problems.” I nodded and came over to the other side of the bed, carefully placing my hand above the injury and focusing, letting the energy flow from my hand.

Nothing happened. Just above the cut, the energy stream halted and turned, flowing back up to my skin. “W-What?” I asked confusedly. This hadn’t ever happened before. I tried it again, and then once more, only to end with the same result.

“I-I don’t get it,” I said. “It always works, this isn’t anything worse than we’ve dealt with before.” I eyed the girl lying on the bed. “There’s something strange about all this, about her.” Sigrid nodded, getting over the shock at our shortcut not working, and immediately heading to grab the bandages in the cupboard nearby. “Well, she’s not from the nearby mainland either,” she noted. “That kind of tanning suggests a much further origin. Perhaps your abilities don’t work on others like you?” I shrugged, not really agreeing with that possibility considering what I knew about Hiccup and company, but no other answer came to mind that really made much sense. Other than…

“Maybe God just has a different plan for this encounter,” I said quietly. “I mean, the only reason I can do things like this is because of him, I’m sure he can stop it at any time too.” I shrugged. “Maybe she’s just supposed to get through this naturally for some reason. I doubt she’d end up here alive just to die, and I’m not getting any sense of her being a danger either.”

Astrid and Hiccup reappeared shortly thereafter, and Sigrid began applying the herbs to the girl’s injuries, and getting Astrid to help her wrap the more serious ones like the gash. Seeing as how my healing ability wasn’t being helpful I could do no more, so I quietly backed out of the way and joined Toothless, Thorn and Spitfire outside.

<Well, she’s in good hands now,> I said, glancing back, <but there’s definitely something off about her. I wasn’t able to heal the gash on her side, or any of the other issues she had.> Toothless stood up upon hearing that. <You don’t think she’s…she’s another like you, do you?> I shrugged and started walking toward Hiccup’s house. <Well, Sigrid suggested the same possibility, though we know I can heal you guys and you’ve been labeled in the same boat as me.> I glanced upward as if expecting the answer to fall out of nowhere.

<Aslan, Coriakin and Lilianda are the only other “guardians” we’ve met thus far, and they all had something that just kind of immediately set them apart,> I said, <but this girl, well, I don’t get any of the same vibes from her.> <There’s still something not right about all of this, though,> Thorn growled. <Yes, I agree, but there’s also nothing we can do about it yet,> Toothless replied. We all nodded.

We reached Hiccup’s house, and I opened the door, looking back at Thorn momentarily. <Call us if she wakes,> I said. She nodded and flew off, followed shortly by Spitfire. I walked in, followed by Toothless, saying hello to Stoick who sat near the fireplace carving, and informed him about the castaway we found. Then, Toothless and I headed up to Hiccup’s room.

We had built a second bed up there for when I stayed over, plus a separate second workbench as well so Hiccup and I could both work in the same place, sometimes together but often on separate projects (his usually mechanical in nature, mine organic). I sauntered over to my desk and sat down, sighing, Toothless heading to the granite slab they had dragged up there for his place to rest.

“Toothless, what are we gonna do?” He looked up from his rock bed (no pun intended) at me. <What do you mean?> he asked. I smiled wearily. “About the newcomer. I don’t get any negative vibes from her per se, and you know how a dragon’s sense of things like that are. But, I can’t ignore the feeling that there’s something else behind all this. I feel like she’s bringing a war to our doorstep, but I can’t see how.” Toothless shrugged and let out a stream of flame, heating up the rock he stood on before finally lying down. <Well, we’ve had wars before, major battles. Against demons, even. If there’s something really that bad, I’m sure we’ll find a way to handle it.> I sighed. “I hope so.”

As Toothless began to doze off, I turned back to my desk, where I had stashed a collection of pens and pencils, paper (Hiccup couldn’t thank me enough for being able to provide a ton of that), and a batch of collected dragons scales. Everyone on Berk knew that the scales of dragons had some rather strange properties, unlike those of normal reptiles, and I’d gone into studying them. The ability to withstand magma-type heat was one, and I had found that even after the dragon shed them the scales could still insulate even those who didn’t have them built in. I had been experimenting, occasionally with Hiccup and Toothless’ help, with manipulating the scales. We had managed to attempt melting, bending, and connecting them into rudimentary armor types, trying out various scales from different species. Not surprisingly, Night Fury was the variety easiest for me to work with, thanks to the one already living in Hiccup’s house.

So far, our attempts hadn’t been too terribly productive, however. Scales only melted at extreme temperatures (most required magnesium-style heat, 5,000°F plus, and some, like Nadders, Night Furies and Fireworms, required even more extreme conditions), and of course you had to keep them near that temperature to mold or at least bend, otherwise they cooled extremely rapidly and hardened again. Even more, go too hot and the melted scale would eventually burn, and once at that point nothing stopped it until it burned completely. The forge still had a couple holes from our attempts before we got good at getting the right temperature.

However, once the scales melted, if they were molded and then flash-cooled, the structure would then act almost like a stiff rubber, semi-flexible but still able to retain the insulating ability from heat and, with some species, cold. Plus, they were waterproof.

As I mulled this over, staring at my sketches of recent and upcoming experiments (and while I credit myself as being a rather good artist, Hiccup was far better so I let him draw schematics), an entirely different thought struck me. Toothless was asleep, and Hiccup wasn’t nearby, and the latter had been struggling with Framherja for multiple months now. Aslan had said he was supposed to find out on his own, but I saw no problem in giving him at least a hint, especially not after all the work he’d put into it at this point.

I morphed Shadow Dragon, and flowed across the ground over to Hiccup’s desk. Quietly so as to not disturb Toothless, I took his charcoal pencil (he still had yet to fully switch over to our modern version) and carefully drew a faint sketch of the bow, followed by a lightning bolt on a separate sheet, and lastly laid them to one side of the desk near a portrait Astrid had made of him.

I smiled, hoping this might be the push he needed, before flowing back to my own desk and getting to work again.


	5. Chapter 4: Awake

The first thing she noticed was that everything was different. She wasn’t drowning on a smashed, half-capsized boat anymore. In fact, where she lay now was rather comfortable, warm, soft…she was in a bed. That much was clear. The girl quietly groaned, a muted pain in her side making itself known, and opened her eyes.

She was in a bed, like she predicted before, lying within a very sturdy looking house as well. She felt sore all over, and could barely move, her muscles cramped from being still so long, but she carefully propped her head up slowly to look around. There was a main door down a short hallway almost directly in front of her bed, and another door leading into a room off to her left. She looked the other way slowly to see a set of stairs leading up to what she assumed was a second floor.

Lastly, she glanced upward, and found a Terrible Terror sleeping on a rafter up in the far corner by a small window.

The girl yelped, not expecting such a sight within someone’s house, but then covered her mouth, not wanting to startle the creature. It was too late, however, as the tiny reptile opened its eyes at the sound and lifted its head, turning to stare down at her. She didn’t move, not sure what the dragon would do. The Terror only gave a short chirrup and stood up, climbing over to the nearby window and flying out. The girl blew out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding and relaxed, before slowly sitting up in order to inspect herself. She expected to find herself covered in bruises and cuts, especially since she was sure wherever she’d ended up, they’d probably found her floating on a wreck.

She was right, to an extent, as the pain in her side revealed itself to be a bandaged gash, and further along she found a couple nasty scrapes on her legs and upper arms. Whoever had taken her in however appeared to have some experience with medicine and healing, however, and Ember was impressed to find no signs of infection or other issue; her currently unknown caretaker had done their job well.

The girl looked around in more detail, finally spotting jars of herbs and table stands littered with various medical equipment all around the room. An herbal tea that she could smell chamomile in was also sitting in a small mug on the stand closest to her bed, and gauzes and linens were neatly folded on a shelf in a corner. Clearly she was in a healer’s house, that much was for certain, but where had yet to be answered.

The front door suddenly swung open, startling the girl out of her thoughts. In walked a slim, but strong looking woman dressed in a thick blouse and sporting a long braid of dirty blonde hair. On her shoulder sat the same Terrible Terror that had been lying on the rafter before.

“Glad te see you’re awake,” the woman said, before nodding to the dragon, who flew back up to its perch on the rafter. “I do hope Scarlet didn’t startle you too much,” she continued, gesturing to the dragon. “She lets me know if patients are doing anything while I’m out, but I understand dragons in houses aren’t common sights elsewhere.” As she headed over to a cupboard and opened it, rummaging around, the girl blinked as she got her bearings again and tried to speak.

“Yeeeeaaaa”- she rasped, then stopped. She swallowed, trying to wet her throat a little, before trying again. “Y-you live with dragons here?”

The woman nodded. “For some time now. Our problems ended with them a few years ago, and they became companions. Do you have dragons where you come from?” The girl nodded, before breaking out into a cough. The woman walked over and picked up the mug of tea, offering it. She took it and drank gratefully, ignoring the bite of some of the herbs. When she was done, she spoke again.

“We…we used to live in peace with them for a few years, but that time have been over for a while.” The woman nodded and smiled, taking the mug back and setting it down on the stand. “Well, you can be sure you’re safe around them here. My name is Sigrid, and I’m the healer of the village. What’s your name, dear?”

The girl hesitated, not sure if she was ready to trust this Sigrid with that information, as she seemed to end up wanted wherever she went. But she hadn’t done anything but take care of her, so the girl decided it wouldn’t hurt. “Uh, my name-my name is Ember.”

Sigrid smiled again. “What a lovely name,” she commented. Ember nodded. “I was named for my hair.” She looked around again. “If you don’t mind me asking, where exactly am I?” Sigrid turned and grabbed up some logs in the corner, going and stacking them in the fireplace by the bed. “You’re in the village of Berk, one of the bigger islands in the Barbaric Archipelago, as they call it.”

Ember’s eyes went wide. “You said Berk?” Sigrid nodded again. “Sure did. We’re home to the hero of the dragon war, and his father Stoick the Vast.” Ember laid back down against the bed, feeling relieved. She had made it! She had actually managed to drift to exactly where she needed to go.

“Are you feeling okay?” Sigrid asked. Ember nodded. “Yes, it’s just…I’ve been trying to get to here for months now, and I’ve finally managed to make it here.” Sigrid cocked an eyebrow as she took a seat on another bed. “Why have you been trying to get here?” she asked. “It’s not like Berk is famous for its vacationing opportunities. Are ye here looking for the person who ended the dragon war, perhaps?”

Ember shook her head. “No, no. I’ve heard about him too, but I came to find someone else,” she explained. “I thought they may be able to help me fix a problem that plagues me. All the rumors I’ve heard led me to here.”

There was silence for a moment as Sigrid sat at the edge of the other bed, before she got up and turned to the linens on another table stand, folding them up carefully. Ember worried she’d said something she shouldn’t have, and stayed silent as well.

“We have had a lot of people come here, seeking help or otherwise,” Sigrid finally said quietly. “It doesn’t always go too well. Do you know who exactly it is you’re looking for?” Ember could only shake her head. “No, not exactly. Stories have been trickling south for some time, about a young man who has powers granted by God, who works with the dragons, or something like that. If there is someone who can help me, it would be him, if he exists.”

Sigrid went silent again as she moved on to a couple jars of herbs, taking out small amounts to prepare a salve for Ember’s injuries. There was a bit of an unofficial agreement between all the Vikings, at least on Berk, that they wouldn’t directly disclose the identity of their ally. She sighed and glanced at her patient again, who had laid flat on the bed one more.

“I’m afraid I can’t too much help you myself. There are a handful of heroes, warriors with many stories about them in these northern islands here, and they mostly keep to themselves when they can. We can send notices to them, but they’ll have to find you before they’ll be convinced to help in any way.”

Ember groaned inwardly, having come all this way for what it seemed may be another dead end. She didn’t get to wallow in her thoughts for long however before the front door swung open, revealing what to her eyes was a very unorthodox group.

* * *

The door to Hiccup’s room burst open as Spitfire came racing in. Hiccup, Toothless and I all jumped up immediately and turned to face him.

<She’s woken up,> the Changewing said. <Scarlet just informed me.> I nodded and glanced over at Hiccup. “Our castaway is awake,” I relayed. “Should we go say hello now?” He nodded and grabbed his current notebook, while I eliminated my usual draconic features and hid the mark on my forehead. We walked downstairs and out the door, only to run straight into Astrid.

“Well, what a coincidence,” she said. “I was just about to come get you three.” “Did it have to do with the girl?” Hiccup asked. Astrid lifted a finger and began to answer, before stopping herself. “How did you know?” she asked. I smirked and jerked my thumb toward the barely visible outline standing on the grass nearby. “Spitfire let us know.” “ Ah. Well, anyway, my mom sent me to get you guys, in case you would be of any help.”

We hurried through the village and down to the Hofferson household. I could pick up both Sigrid’s voice and a much younger person’s conversing as we approached the door. Astrid opened it and walked in first, followed by Hiccup, me, and lastly Toothless.

Lying on the bed, but most definitely awake, was the girl we’d rescued. “It’s about time,” I joked. “It’s been three days since we found you.” The girl blinked. “I’ve been out that long?” We nodded. “Plus however long you were out on that boat,” Hiccup added. The girl rubbed her eyes, before coughing.

“She’s still dealing with hypothermic aftereffects,” Sigrid reminded, “so don’t bother her too much.”

After the girl stopped coughing, she looked back at us. “Pardon my asking, but who are you, anyway?” “My name is Astrid,” said person introduced, “and this is where I live as well. You can thank my mother for bringing you back around.” The girl looked at Sigrid, then back to Astrid. “Well, I can certainly see the resemblance,” she commented. “You two looked a lot alike.” Astrid nodded, then there was a moment of silence before she elbowed Hiccup.

“Oww! Okay, sorry, a little patience please,” he quipped, stepping forward. “I’m Hiccup Haddock, son of the chief, and this is Toothless,” he introduced, gesturing to said dragon, who gave our guest a gummy smile. The girl’s eyes widened. “You…you were the ones who ended the war up here, weren’t you?” Hiccup nodded. “Yeah, why?” The girl shook her head. “I-sorry, I thought you’d be a little…uh…a little bigger, that’s all.”

Hiccup groaned as Astrid and I sniggered. “Why does everyone say that?” he questioned. “Because you’re a twig like me,” I replied, giving him a friendly pat. Then I focused back on the girl.

“Okay, before I introduce myself, can I ask your name?” The girl smiled sheepishly. “Oh, sorry. My name is Ember. I’m, uh, not from around here.” I nodded. “Figured as much. That impressive tan you have kind of gives it away.” Ember looked down at her exposed arm, then back at me. “So, who are you? Pardon my saying but you don’t strike me as a Viking either, you don’t look much like them.” She glanced between me and Hiccup. “Though you could almost pass as his brother.”

I chuckled and nodded. “No, admittedly I’m not ‘from around here,’ as you say, but I am a local friend. My name’s Hawken, and if you happen to need me, well, look for either of these two,” I said, and gestured to Hiccup and Astrid. “Uhhh, right,” Ember said. “I’ll remember that. So, it was you guys who found me?” We nodded, before I looked up and spotted the real hero here looking in through the window.

“Actually, it was Spitfire who found you,” I said, gesturing to the dragon. Ember glanced up and spotted him. “A Changewing? I thought those guys were really rare.” I shrugged. “Well, he’s the only one I’ve ever seen, though I’m sure Hiccup has run into them before.” “Yeah, thanks for reminding me,” he muttered.

Ember chuckled and shook her head slowly. “This is going to take me a while to wrap my head around all this. I thank you for helping me, but I’m afraid unless someone can tell…oww!” She yelped as she shifted her position, putting her hand to her sighed. She looked down at the bandage and sighed. “Well, I guess I’ll be here a little longer than I thought,” she muttered.

I cleared my throat and looked at the other three, gesturing toward the door. “Well, as I can see you need some more rest, so we’ll be taking our leave for the moment.” I nodded to Sigrid. “If you need me, send Scarlet.” She nodded, and our little group exited the house, leaving Ember to rest again.

As we stepped out, I looked to Hiccup. “That was kind of weird. Usually most people think right away I’m related to you. How’d she know so quick?” He shrugged. “Well, she’s from quite the distance away from here, so maybe that has something to do with it.” I shrugged, and we glanced back at the house again.

* * *

Ember glanced over at Sigrid again. “What did he mean by ‘if you need him’?” Sigrid chuckled. “Oh, Hawken has a number of talents, not the least of which are general healing. He helps me around here rather often when we have patients here.”

Ember sighed and laid he head back against the pillow again. _He was certainly different from the rest,_ she thought, _even just how he acted. Maybe he’s the one. I’ll bet at the very least if not he and Hiccup can help me find who I’m looking for._


	6. Chapter 5: Premonitions

It was another two days before Sigrid decided finally that Ember was well enough to move about. When she was made aware of this, the girl wasted no time in getting outside, having been stuck in a bed for five days already.

Back at my house, the storm finally began to let up, but it would be a long, long time before anything opened back up; we’d had a ridiculous record-setting four feet of snow dumped on us. The speculation on the “polar vortex” people were talking about actually made sense to me at that point. In any case, that meant that my school finals were cancelled, and I had plenty of time to hang out with Hiccup and company because of it. This led to me being around when Ember took her chance to explore the village.

Hiccup and I had just left the forge when I noticed her walking down the pathway outside. She noticed us too, and waved, heading in our direction. “Hi Hawken, hey Hiccup!” she called. We waved back, and I asked, “Feeling well enough to be walking finally, huh?” She shrugged. “Sigrid finally let me out, and I couldn’t stay cooped up in that bed any longer either. I had to get outside.” She glanced around. “So, uh, Hiccup, where’s you’re dragon…uh….whatever his name was again? I was hoping to get a better look at him.” Hiccup raised an eyebrow, but turned and whistled in the direction of the forge. From inside, I heard an irritated groan.

<What? I was comfy in there,> Toothless growled as he stepped out the door. <It’s warm, cozy, not like out here. Can we at least go somewhere with…> he trailed off when he spotted Ember standing with us. <Oh. That’s why you called me out here.> I huffed at his laziness, while Ember’s eyes lit up.

“What did you call his species again?” she asked. “Toothless is a Night Fury,” Hiccup replied. “He’s the only one we’ve ever seen too.” Ember nodded as she walked up to the dragon and looked him over. “He’s magnificent. Reminds me a lot of a dragon species we have where I come from.” She got a faraway look in her eyes for a moment, before she shook her head and smiled, chuckling a little as Hiccup drawled, “Well, don’t praise him too much. It goes to his head.” He then ducked to avoid Toothless’ tail.

Ember’s smile then turned to a slightly uncertain, concerned look when Toothless started looking her over, walking around to check our visitor out. “I promise he won’t hurt you,” Hiccup said. “Toothless is a very trustworthy dragon, he’s just checking things out.”

As Toothless satisfied his curiosity of the outlander, something Ember said came up again in my mind. “You never did say exactly where you were from,” I noted, turning to her again. Ember gave a sheepish smile. “Well, I doubt you’d know where it is,” she said. Hiccup smirked and shook his head. “We’re both well versed on the world, Ember. If I don’t know then I can be certain he will,” he gestured to me as he said this. “He likes to know things like this.”

Ember sighed. “Very well then. Do you know where Jerusalem is?” Hiccup shook his head, then looked at me, raising an eyebrow at my expression. I stood there in slight shock, before shaking my head and asking, “You-you come from Jerusalem?” Ember laughed. “Well, not quite, but just north of there.”

“Uh, pardon my asking, but where is Jerusalem?” Hiccup asked. “The eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea,” I replied. “It’s kind of…important to my beliefs.” “Well, you never mentioned that before.” “It never came up in conversation. Though I’m sure it would have eventually.”

“Wait a minute,” Ember butted in, “you mean you don’t share their beliefs?” She gestured to Hiccup, then the village. I shook my head. “I may be a local friend, but I’m quite different from them on such terms. I believe in only one God, unlike those that live here.” “As do I,” Ember noted. “But anyway, back to the original topic: yes I live near the city of Jerusalem. I’ve come a rather long way to get here, as I’ve been, uh, looking for someone.” She sighed, gesturing with her hands. “I’m afraid I haven’t found that person yet. Though, from everything I’ve heard so far I should be in the right place.”

She shook her head again and smiled. “Well, anyway, if, uh, Toothless here is done making sure I’m okay, I’d rather not just stand around doing nothing on my first day out of that bed.” I gave a pointed look to the dragon, telling him he was done. He huffed and plodded back over next to Hiccup, who gestured toward the village. “Well, care for a tour then?” Ember nodded.

We wandered around the village for a time, pointing out this interesting house or that important building (making sure we weren’t giving away anything dangerous; we still didn’t know our newcomer well enough to really trust her), and along the way we managed to run into a handful of the other teens as well. Astrid decided to tag along, giving Ember another girl to talk to on the walk. However, she wasn’t the only one we found. Or, more correctly, not the only one who found us.

“So this is the castaway, huh?” Snotlout asked, grinning and flexing his biceps. I glared at him as Astrid groaned and started to lead Ember a different direction. Snotlout followed of course. “She’s a lot better looking than I would have expected, coming from a shipwreck,” he stated bluntly. I glanced at Ember, gauging her reaction. She appeared to just be continuing on her walk, but to my trained eye I could see she was waiting for the arrogant airhead to make the wrong move. She didn’t have to wait long either. True to Snotlout’s reputation, he approached her.

“You wanna take a tour around the island with me?” he asked flirtatiously. He sidled up next to Ember. “I ride a Monstrous Nightmare, he’s the most awesome dragon. We could show you where I work”-

He was cut short as Ember whirled, aiming an elbow and then the back of her hand right at his face. “AAAAHHHHOOWWWWW!!! Snotlout screamed (in a _very_ un-manly manner, I should add) as he staggered back, clutching his nose, and sporting a small amount of blood running from his split lip as well.

“Maybe that will finally teach you what NOT to do around girls, hmm?” Astrid quipped as she sauntered by him. Hiccup chuckled as we caught up to the two girls again. “It’s about time someone gave it to him,” I commented, looking back at Snotlout as he nursed his broken pride, and possibly nose. “Where’d you learn how to do that?”

Ember shrugged. “Where I lived our lands are often attacked by nomads and rival kingdoms. You have to know how to defend yourself. Who exactly was that, anyway?” “Eh, Snotlout,” I replied. “He was one of the original riders back when Hiccup here took down the Red Death, but unfortunately he’s never learned to let go of his pride.” She nodded as we continued on toward the Great Hall.

As we entered, another thought occurred to me. “By the way, Ember, I’ve been kind of curious: how exactly did you get your name?” She put on a faraway smile. “Oh, I was named for my hair, among other things.” There was silence as all of us glanced at her hair: mostly brown, with a tinge of red. “Oookay, so you have a little red in your hair, but that doesn’t seem to be enough,” I noted. “Hiccup has more red than that.” “Well, if the sun ever decides to show itself,” she muttered, “you’ll understand. This place is really cloudy. Anyway, now a question for you.” She looked right at me as we reached the hall’s firepit. “You never did say where you come from either.”

There was an awkward silence for a moment, neither of the two Vikings wanting to say anything, and I scratched the back of my head. “Yeah, about that. Like I said, I’m a local friend, but I don’t live here on the island,” I finally said. “My way home is off to the west from here, in a way. You could say I’m from a land discovered by our friends here, even,” I gestured to Hiccup, Astrid and Toothless, “but the whole story…well, it’s complicated, and it’s not something I readily share with people.”

Ember sighed. “Gee, talk about suspicious. But, I’m sure you have your reasons, I have mine.” She glanced around. “I’ll have to find out some other time then, maybe. So, this is your main hall? It’s quite impressive.” “It’s carved out of a cave,” Hiccup said, “so it’s great for hiding out from bad weather, but mostly it’s used for celebrations and drinking fests nowadays.” He rolled his eyes as memories of the twins came to both our minds. Ember snorted, then began looking around the hall, at the decorated shields and tapestries hung around. As she did so, I pulled Hiccup and Astrid to one side, Toothless following along naturally.

“Remember when Ingavar came, and I said I had read a story about those events?” I whispered. They both nodded. “Is Ember the same story or something?” Astrid asked. I shook my head. “No, but there was a character with the same name from a different story. But in any case, I fear that may be partially what’s happening, though admittedly in that book there were some notable differences.” “Like what?” Hiccup asked. “Like, in the other version the girl had a Night Fury with her.”

Toothless immediately glanced over at Ember, eyes widened in renewed curiosity. I sighed. “If that happens and I’m right again, and honestly I really hope I’m not, we’ve definitely got a fight coming soon.” I looked back at Ember. “And, if then, she may need protection as well.” I looked straight at Hiccup. “One thing, one good, solid piece of evidence that I’m right, and I’ll reveal myself. But not until then.”

Once Ember had satisfied her curiosity of the artwork hung within the hall, we wandered back outside and down to the training arena, where both Fishlegs and the twins were helping some of the villagers out with various dragon problems. Or, really more precisely, Fishlegs was being helpful, while Ruff and Tuff were fighting once again over something. I sighed and walked over to the two, grabbing them by the back of their shirts and pulling them apart, lifting the pair off the ground for good measure. They both froze upon realizing who held them.

“What, pray tell, is the issue this time?” I growled. “My idiot sister thinks that her saddle idea is actually better than mine,” Tuffnut griped. “That’s because it is,” Ruffnut snapped back. “Yours is all misshapen and crooked. Mine at least looks like something you could sit on!” “Nuh-uh!” “Uh huh!” “Shut up!” “You shut up!” “Troll breath!” “Bride of Grendel!”

“Enough!” I yelled, barely even having to glance down at their “saddle designs,” both of which proved why Hiccup and Gobber were the smiths and thereby in charge of that particular project. “Sorry to disappoint, but neither of them could be used. They don’t even have anything to attach the rider to the saddle!” I cast an apologetic look to the person they were supposedly “helping,” the well-respected Phlegma the Fierce. “I do apologize Phlegma. I’m sure Fishlegs will be happy to resolve this once he’s done with Gunnar over there.” I looked back at the twins, walked over to the entrance of the arena, and dumped then unceremoniously on the ground. Then, I turned back toward Ember.

“Sorry you had to see that,” I apologized. “The twins are sort of legendary for their quarrelsome nature, and I’m sure you’ll see it at least a couple times more today.” Ember chuckled. “Yeah, reminds me of a couple people back home. You are also apparently a lot stronger than you seem, unless those two are a whole lot lighter than they seem.” She looked over at the pair as they left, already going at it over something else, then back at me, and her eyes widened.

“What?” I asked concernedly. “Uh, your eyes, do they always change color like that?” she asked. “They’re tinged red; I’ve never seen a color like that before.” I blinked, and nodded, letting my eyes fade to my more normal aqua coloration. “Oh, yeah, they change colors with my mood,” I said. “Yeah, they go red whenever he gets angry,” Astrid said, “so the twins see that color a lot. And if they ever go black, run.” “Thank you, Astrid,” I drawled. “Anyway, those two are Ruffnut and Tuffnut, the twins as we mentioned, and over there is Fishlegs, our resident dragon nerd.” Ember smirked, and looked around at the doors in the walls of the ring.

“So, what exactly is this place used for?” she asked. “Oh, a number of things now,” Hiccup replied. “It’s mostly used for the so-called ‘Dragon Academy’ that we have going, with training classes and occasionally holding rogue dragons, but occasionally it’s used as a secondary jail if needed, since those doors can hold even the strongest dragons.” He shuddered. “Those were not pleasant days.” He shook it off and smiled at Ember. “So, shall we move on?”

As we exited the ring, Ember went first leading the way. Just as she stepped out into the open, too, the clouds finally broke, and a beam of sunlight cut across the ledge where we stood, illuminating the area. It also hit Ember’s hair, and the reaction brought the other four of us to a complete halt, staring at the picture it presented: her hair reflected the sun in a way we’d never seen, looking almost as if it had caught fire and shining in a bright reddish orange glow.

Ember turned and saw us staring, and she smirked. “Wow,” I said, and she chuckled, looking up at her “halo.” “Yeah, it’s kind of strange. I’m the only one I know with color changing hair.” “It-it’s beautiful,” I remarked, then blinked and snapped out of my daze, embarrassed. “I-I mean, well, you know what I mean I’m sure. Uh, has it always done that?” Her smirk deepened. “Yeah, ever since I was born. And it’s brought on more attention than I’d ever like. I mean, it’s pretty, and I’d never trade my hair for anything, but not very good for going unnoticed by the wrong people.”

I nodded. “I understand completely. Though hopefully you won’t have to worry about that here. Just Snotlout.” We both chuckled at that.

At this point Astrid seemed to wake up from her shock, and glanced at Toothless and Hiccup, who were still in a trance. “Hey! Hello, you two?!” she snapped. Both of them jolted and looked around, embarrassed as well. “Sorry,” Hiccup mumbled, going red, while Ember and I just laughed again.

* * *

The rest of the island tour was uneventful, as the clouds closed up again (Ember complaining about this as the temperature dropped with it) and Ember’s hair lost its shine. When we were done though, we all suddenly realized we hadn’t figured out where Ember would stay. Since she was well enough, she wouldn’t be sleeping in the infirmary beds anymore.

“She can stay in our guest room for now,” Astrid suggested, to which we all agreed wholeheartedly. But Ember still had something on her mind, and our mentioning of where she would stay brought it out again.

“Hiccup, Astrid, all of you, you have been very kind to me,” she said, “and I thank you for your hospitality, but I did come here for a reason, and I can’t stay long if I don’t find an answer here.” “Oh?” Astrid said, raising an eyebrow. Ember nodded. “I-well, I’ve been on the run or months now, ever since…well, I’d really rather not go into details, but something terrible happened where I came from, and I fear I am part of the reason for it.” 

“You’re a criminal?” Hiccup asked in surprise, glancing at me. “No, no, nothing like that,” Ember hurriedly defended. “There’s something…not right with where I come from, and I had heard rumors, stories really, that there may have been someone here, someone touched by God who might be able to help me fix whatever happened.” She gestured to Hiccup and I. “You two I thought would be the best leads here, since you’re both good with dragons and might know the person I’m looking for. Supposedly he has powers related to them, or able to work with them, or… something. What I’ve heard wasn’t very specific, but I still needed to try.”

There was silence for a moment as Ember gave us an almost pleading look. <That the proof you need?> Toothless asked. I only barely shook my head, not enough for Ember to see but enough for him to catch.

“We may know who you’re talking about,” Hiccup said, earning a glare from me, “ooor maybe we don’t. There’s quite a few legends and stories like that up here, and few are actually true.” “I’m afraid we don’t have enough information to work with given what you said,” I added. Ember sighed, looking somewhat defeated.

“If the stories are true, then I need his help,” she said quietly. “Everything I’ve heard pointed to Berk, but if you don’t know who I’m looking for, I’ll have to thank you for your help now and find a new lead somewhere else.” She smiled sadly and turned to head toward the Hofferson house.

“Ember wait!” I said, running up and grabbing hold of her shoulder. “Look, whether or not we can help you now, give us a little time, some more information, and we may be able to find what you’re looking for.” Ember shook her head, appearing on the verge of tearing up. “I can’t tell you much more. Every time I’ve done so, and I didn’t find help immediately, those who I tell end up getting hurt, killed, somehow because of me.” She looked away, but I turned her back. Her look morphed to one of irritation now, but I continued anyway. “Just give us some time, that’s all I ask. This island and the people here may yet surprise you. Just a few days at least, alright?”

There was silence again as Ember debated within herself. Finally she sighed and nodded. “But, I cannot promise it will be safe for me to stay,” she said quietly. “Eh, we’ve handled a dragon the size of a mountain,” Hiccup joked, walking up to us. “I’m sure we can handle whatever comes next.” Ember smiled at his attempt to lighten the mood. “Maybe, but I hope you don’t have to.”

* * *

_“It’s coming!” Ember yelled. Trees broke and the ground quaked as it made its way after us. Toothless shot into the air, spinning around and preparing to fire, but was swiped to the side by a massive, gleaming tail, and a piercing roar echoed across the island._

_Ember and I broke into a clearing and turned, frozen in terror, as the massive serpent erupted from the forest, its eye blazing in deep hatred. Ember grabbed tightly to her sword and screamed at it, but the creature focused instead on me. I felt rooted to the spot, as if even the power in my hands wouldn’t do a thing, as it opened its mouth and lunged, screaming to the heavens._

_“She is mine now!!!”_

I jolted awake in a cold sweat, my arms covered in black scales. That was concerning enough, as I’d never morphed while unconscious, but the images still burned into my mind were all the worse. I changed back to normal and tried to relax, but something was definitely off. I needed to get back to Berk, and fast. Grabbing my four swords, I scribbled a note and left it on the table for my parents in case I was gone a while, then trudged through the snow to the portal. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I wasn’t the only one who had gotten the hint that something was very wrong.

* * *

Ember jolted awake as the nightmare faded. She didn’t know why that boy happened to be there in her dream, or why he was targeted first, but she did know one thing: they had found her again, and they wouldn’t care this time if there was a village in the way or not; they would come after her. She needed to leave, immediately. As quietly as she could, she got out of her borrowed bed, gathered what few things they had salvaged from the boat for her, and slipped out of Astrid’s house.

* * *

Hiccup and Toothless woke up simultaneously, then looked at each other. There was nothing right with that, if they were having the same dream, at the same time. The both got up and suited up, and headed out the skylight toward the portal, knowing Hawken would be needed, and immediately. Ember was in danger, and most definitely it had to do with whatever she was afraid to tell them.


	7. Serpent's Revenge

As I bolted across the canopy of the forest, invisible to nearly all eyes in the darkness, a familiar roar caught my attention. <Hawken! Over here!>

I twisted my head to see Toothless and Hiccup heading my way. I flared my wings and slowed, turning to face them. “What’s going on, and why are you two up at this time of night?” I asked. “I could ask you the same. Both of us woke up at the same time,” Hiccup explained, “from a nightmare involving Ember.”

My mouth dropped open in shock. “You’re kidding.” “No, unfortunately I’m not.” “Well, that’s exactly the same reason I was heading out here!” I exclaimed.

Silence reigned, penetrated only by flapping wings as that realization sank in. “So…you’re telling me we all had the same dream? From our own particular perspectives maybe?” Hiccup queried uncertainly. I nodded. “Well, then that means…”

None of us had to finish that thought as the impossibility of it being coincidence hit home. All three of us turned and sped toward Berk, scanning the ground below for the tall, thin reddish-brunette this whole mystery was circling around. A cold wind of a feeling passed through me, too, as I looked out toward the sea and spotted something in the faint moonlight, cutting through the water on the horizon.

We finally spotted Ember quickly and quietly making her way down the main path in the village toward the marina, her hair glowing slightly even in the faint light of the moon. I tucked in my wings immediately and dove toward her, dropping closer, closer, until I was just above the girl. I quickly flared my wings, and changed fully human as I twisted around and slammed feet first into the ground, facing Ember.

“Ember, hold on!” I yelled, standing up and heading toward her. She skidded to a complete halt, eyes wide in surprise at seeing me seemingly fall out of thin air. “W-where did you come from?” she stuttered. I jerked my thumb up toward Toothless, who was coming in for a landing next to me. “Up there, but that’s not important right now. What is important is that I need to ask: what’s happening right now?”

Ember froze, partly in confusion at our seeming to know something was up, and partly out of growing fear. “W-what do you mean?” she asked quietly. “All three of us were woken up by what we thought was a dream, involving you and a sea serpent, and there’s something big out there heading toward the island right now,” I replied quickly, pointing toward the ocean. “So, I’ll ask again: what is going on?”

Ember stayed still for a moment longer, before sighing. “I told you before it wouldn’t be safe for me to be here. I’ve put everyone in danger by staying this long.” She gestured out toward the ocean. “I was attacked as I tried crossing the sea to get here, and I managed to injure the creature that attacked me, scaring it off for a time. It’s the only reason I even made it here.” She gave me a look of great concern. “I told you I was hunted, and the serpent works for the hunter. It wants me, and now on top of that it’s here for revenge as well. And on the second round, the attacker is never alone. They will destroy your village here to get to me this time, and I cannot allow your lives to be given, especially not after having failed at every turn already.” She turned to head toward the harbor again, but I grabbed her shoulder before she could get out of reach.

“Please, just let me go!” she yelled. “If I go, they’ll take me and leave you all alo”- her words cut off when she caught sight of my eyes, fluorescing green of the same hue as the Night Fury’s eyes behind me.

“You told us you came here looking for someone,” I said sternly, “someone who you thought could help you. I think I can tell you now that someone does exist, and may very well be willing to help you.” Ember’s eyes brightened at this, but stayed with a hint of confusion. “How do you know?”

I glanced at Hiccup and Toothless. “Take Ember to the edge of the forest and wait there for me. I’ll wake the village.” I looked back at Ember then. “Before I tell you how I know, I need to ask you, and seriously: Are you willing to trust us?” Ember raised an eyebrow, but slowly nodded. “Then you’ve already found who you’re looking for,” I told her, smiling, before I let go of her arm and turned, morphing Night Fury right in front of her and taking off, heading toward the watch towers.

* * *

Ember watched on, dumbfounded, as the dragon/boy/whatever he was took off in front of her. She had known who she was looking for supposedly possessed a power unlike any other, but to actually be able to turn into a dragon? And he was hiding in plain sight the whole time? She mentally slapped herself, as she’d had the notion before but had brushed it off.

Ember snapped out of her daze when Toothless walked up and nudged her on the shoulder. “Ember, we need to go,” Hiccup told her, urgently. Ember nodded, but still felt out of sorts. “All this time? Why didn’t he just tell me?” she asked as she gingerly climbed up atop Toothless’ saddle. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Hiccup shrugged. “Well, there’s a lot more to him than meets the eye.” “No duh.” “Careful. And we have our reasons and reservations. It’s not something we like to just flaunt about. Anyway, hold on tightly.”

She grabbed hold of Hiccup’s riding vest as they shot upward, and toward the forest, as three loud bongs sounded from the warning bell, followed by the loud bellow of a horn. Most unsettling, however, was the unearthly scream that broke the sky from across the waves.

* * *

I raced to the main watch tower and notified the guard there of the impending danger, and he turned and rang out the three-bong warning, horns sounding in response from around the village as I raced then down to Stoick’s house, as he came racing out the door.

“Hawken! What’s going on?” he asked as I landed, and deposited my swords inside the door. I’d need to be able to move, and they’d hold me back at the moment. “We’ve got a sea serpent working for the devil headed here on a hunt for Ember, and I have no clue what we’re going to do just yet,” I replied.

There was silence for a moment as Stoick stood, trying to process this information. “Is there a punch line to that?” he finally asked. I gave him a deadpan glare. As if to verify my point, a hideous screeching noise wailed out across the sea. Stoick nodded as his expression hardened. “Right. Well, where is Ember? Or my son for that matter?” “Hopefully heading for the forest like I told them to,” I replied. Stoick raised an eyebrow. “Thought you didn’t have a plan.” I shrugged.

“If it’s going to go after Ember, at least we might be able to draw the serpent away from the village. Plus I can work better with lots of space and cover.” He nodded. “Alright. But first, go to the cliffs, and wait for my signal,” he ordered, grabbing his weapons from inside the house and then heading down toward the main village. “Hopefully you can draw it somewhere we may be able to trap it. If not then whatever you can do in the forests will have to do.” I nodded and launched upward, letting out a defiant roar as Stoick began belting out orders below.

* * *

Toothless touched down on Hiccup’s roof soon after Stoick left, and Hiccup jumped off, running to the skylight of his room. “Wait, hold on!” Ember yelled. “I thought we were supposed to go to the forest!” “We will,” Hiccup said, flipping open the skylight, “but I need to grab something first.” Under his breath he added, “And maybe she’ll actually work for me this time around.”

He slipped through the window and jumped down, running over to his unattended and cluttered desk. There, under a couple of papers, lay what he was looking for: the bow Framherja. He grabbed it and nearly turned to leave right there, before something caught his eye: the papers that had been lying underneath the bow fluttered to the ground. He looked closer at them, recognizing sketches that clearly he hadn’t made: one of the bow in his hands, what looked like a sketch of electricity, and Astrid’s drawing of him. The three had been laid together by someone, and it was clearly on purpose.

“I wonder,” Hiccup muttered, “lightning…heat…heat makes things melt or burn….” He stopped, realizing he might have been missing the clue he needed all along: the melted metals, splintered arrows, that exploding ice arrow they’d tried not too long ago…of course! He grinned, and ran back over and jumped up through the window, running over and climbing back into Toothless’ saddle as quickly as he could. They took off and angled toward the trees, and Hiccup could almost feel Ember staring at Framherja, so he turned to look back at her.

“That bow,” she muttered quietly, “I’ve seen it somewhere before.” Hiccup raised an eyebrow. “Uh, not sure how you could have. No one else knows about it save for Astrid and Hawken.” She shook her head. “No, not personally. In a picture, from somewhere back where I came from, with a prophesy of sorts; the end to a great wrong that was done.” She looked back up to him, and Hiccup felt a shiver run down his spine. Toothless glanced back, unnerved by what Ember had said too, but shook it off and sped on toward Raven Point.

* * *

I landed on the cliff above the village, watching the distant disturbance in the waves grow larger and closer. The villagers and the dragons bustled about below, sealing everything they could up from damage. Soon, the whole town was braced for battle, and the inhabitants were in place, ready for the attack. I looked down at Stoick, the only one who knew my location, and he nodded, holding his hand up ready to give the signal when it was time.

Silence. That’s all there was, even the wave that had been on the horizon having disappeared. Then, out beyond the harbor, my hyper sensitized eyes spotted something just under the ocean surface, racing inward. A wave grew once more above the disturbance, and plowed forward, reaching the rock stacks around the harbor and crashing into them, causing one of the smaller ones to topple downward. Then, the wave dropped away again and the object it concealed vanished. I blinked in surprise and peered closer.

<EMBEERRRRRR!!!>

The shrieking roar split the sky, and something massive burst up out of the water in front of the docks, soaking the entirety of the lower cliffs. My eye widened as the wall of water receded: climbing up toward the village was not one, but _three_ sea serpents. They were not as big as the demon disguised as Jormungandr, but menacing nonetheless, deep brownish red in color and bearing on the top of their heads, an image like that of a pentagram carved into their skin. My frown deepened: clearly they were here to do no good, but they had to flaunt a symbol like that was well?

The bigger serpent in the middle of the trio looked down at the two others and nodded, and they all split up, sliding along different paths up toward the village. Being the biggest one the middle serpent, apparently the leader, was the easiest to watch, especially as he slipped straight up into the middle of the village. As he neared, I spotted a massive scar stretching across his closed right eye; clearly Ember’s doing. He tilted his head to the ground and tasted the air, a long forked tongue flickering out, before a wicked grin spread across his muzzle.

“Ember show yourself! I know you’re here!” the serpent yelled, the other two echoing with bone-chilling hisses. The spoken words struck me like a ton of bricks; these were definitely not normal creatures. “Show yourself now, and we’ll make it painless,” he continued. “Or, we can ruin everything. Is that what you want to happen?”

Obviously Ember wasn’t going to just show up and reply, so the serpent smiled again. “Very well then. This will be on your head, just like every other before now!” He raised up his tail, flaring the massive fin at the tip and aiming to bring it squarely down on the forge below him.

Before he could though, Stoick managed to get over his own shock and brought his hand down, providing the signal I was waiting for. I grinned and let out a screeching roar of my own, blasting upward into the sky. The three serpents all looked up, trying to spot the source of the sound, but of course it’s extremely difficult to see black on black. Even with the faint glow of the moon above I was nearly invisible against the velvet sky, so I still held the element of surprise. And I’d use it, too

I reached a proper height, then flipped, and dove straight downward toward the leader. The wind began to scream around me in the typical Fury fashion, and I watched the serpent’s eyes widen in surprise just before I released a spinning ball of flame straight at the offending mark on his head.

The explosion that followed forced the reptile’s head into the ground, and acted as a second signal of its own, so as I swooped past and changed form once more, dissolving into the dark, numerous roars of dragons and battle cries of the Vikings permeated the air. A hoard of winged reptiles poured into the sky, and volleys of fire began to rain down on the demonic invaders. From below them, arrows and axes flew out of the dark, the air singing around the blades as a handful began to find their mark. I materialized in front of the leading serpent again, wielding in my claws a blade of pure shadows, shaped like the swords I had dropped off at the chief’s house.

<You picked the wrong village to attack, foolish servant of evil,> I hissed menacingly, pointing the tip of my sword at him. The serpent’s eyes widened, before they narrowed. <And here I was hoping I was just contending with the last Night Fury,> he snapped back. The statement hit me, but I didn’t have time to process it before he continued. <The girl came searching for the crossworlds guardian. I’ve fought with many of your kind, I know how you work.>

I grinned. <First off, quit with the labels, they’re annoying. And second, do you really? I come from another world, and I possess a gift unlike any other. On top of that, I have an entire village of dragons and Vikings to back me up as well.> <Not for long,> the serpent snapped, baring two rows of razor teeth as he lifted his tail up and slammed it into the ground.

Great fissures erupted in the pathways, and out of them bursts of unnatural fire leapt out. They snaked under nearby houses, threatening to light the village on fire and bring it caving in on itself. I dove down into the cracks, overtaking the flames with anthracite fire and freezing them in their tracks, halting the spread of the fissures and pulling inward, drawing the ground together and sealing the damage. Then, I turned, and threw tendrils of shadow around the serpent’s tail, pinning him in place. He lunged at me, but stopped dead when he realized his attack had only passed through the apparition I presented as, as I was nothing more than a shadow.

I grinned again. “Like I said, I have gifts unlike any other. Seemingly more than you can handle too!”

I spoke too soon. Though I to this day don’t know how, a searing pain erupted from around the shadow tendrils on the serpent’s tail, his scales glowing reddish with power, and began to race through me. I gritted my teeth and held tightly still, deadening my nerves as quickly as I could, but the damage had already been done. The serpent whipped his tail backward, escaping my weakened grip, and slithered further up into the village, turning to grin at me.

“For every heavenly power you have there is something that can tear at it. The feeling is painful, isn’t it?” I bared my teeth, bright white contrasting with black. “Your power is a mockery of mine. For that alone I am stronger. And in any case, while you mock me in both the dragon’s tongue and the human’s you still manage to be the dumber of the two of us here.” I surged upward, reforming my sword, drawing his attention, before I nodded. The serpent’s eyes widened, but his reaction was too late once more.

“YYYAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!” A massive group of Vikings, led by Astrid and Stoick, leapt out from the nearby houses, brandishing spears, axes, swords, you name it. The weapons took flight, most bouncing off the creature’s hard scales but a handful still managed to find their mark, sinking deep between the hard plates. The sea serpent screamed in agony and fell to his side, but reflexively whipped his tail around, blindsiding the warriors and knocking them over like bowling pins. Most jumped right back up, however, used to hard blows, and I grabbed tightly to my shadow blade, swinging it toward the serpent’s head. He ducked back, avoiding the cutting edge, before rising back up and ripping the weapons out of his hide. His eyes blazed anger, and he turned, lining up on Stoick, and struck, mouth open and hinged fangs swinging forward to bear.

Before the snake could reach his target, though, Astrid leapt upward, screaming menacingly as she brought a pair of previously thrown axes down toward his neck. The serpent’s eyes blazed again, and he ducked to the side, avoiding the blades which would have cut through scale with Astrid’s weight behind them, and whipped his tail around. Astrid backflipped over the appendage, but stumbled back as sparks began to erupt around the tailfin.

I stupidly ignored that warning sign, and swung my shadow blade. The serpent’s tail came up, and there was a massive BANG! and an explosion of energy when they collided: he had covered his tailfin with a powerful barrier field, something not even my shadows could break through directly.

“Get back!” I yelled to the others, who nodded and retreated, going to focus on the other two serpents. I chanced a glance toward them to see where those battles led: one was already almost down for the count, great acid burns visible across its hide even from where I floated halfway across the village. Spitfire was certainly getting his job done. The other was however holding his own.

I whirled back around and faced the lead serpent once more, grinning. <Your minions are failing you terribly, and your quarry Ember is nowhere nearby. Give this up now and we may still let you escape this alive,> I hissed, slowly morphing from Shadow to Lightning Blazer.

The serpent snorted in reply. <I was sent here to find her, and kill her, and I do not fail upon my assignments, _guardian_. I will find her, and end her, and there is nothing you can do to stop me from that, even with all your shifting powers.> He lunged at me, but as he struck a new weapon made itself known. Unlike before he didn’t do through me, but as the serpent’s fangs connected with my torso, great bolts of electricity ran down his neck, literally stopping him short from the overload.

The serpent roared again in agony and anger, and swung his tail in my direction. I lifted my own, and pure energy met pure energy in a great burst of lightning. He glared at me, before taking a completely different tactic, bolting away and toward the forest.

<No!> I screeched, beginning to melt into a pure lightning bolt, but before I could take off, the serpent stopped and turned toward his other allies. His eyes widened, spotting one of them already splayed out across the eastern end of the village, completely unmoving, and I grinned, planning on taking advantage of his momentary pause as he backed up, but halted with a shiver running down my spine as he turned the other direction and roared. The third serpent turned, gave a grin of his own, and a great burst of blinding red light rippled out around him. That serpent’s path was suddenly clear, and as he made his way toward the bigger one, I rushed over to that battle scene, fearful of what I’d find.

There were people and dragons splayed about everywhere, also unmoving. I reformed and held a paw to the neck of one of the ones I recognized immediately, specifically Mulch, and breathed a sigh of relief. Whatever energy attack that was wasn’t strong enough to kill them, but they were all knocked unconscious by the blast.

My focus turned once more to my previous opponent and I stood up fully, turning to face the two serpents, who sat above us at the very edge of the trees. They both grinned and bolted into the depths of the forest, racing off to find their true goal.

“Get back here, you overgrown earthworm scum!” The yell drew my attention behind me, and I spotted Gobber running up the path toward the forest. Apparently he’d been one of the ones not hit by the blast. I bolted (no pun intended) for him, and blocked his path. “Hey! I ain’t done wit’ them, not by a long shot!” he growled. I shook my head. “Leave them to us. Take care of the village,” I requested, gesturing to the broken and burning houses, and the large number of injured villagers. “I will find a way to deal with them.”

Gobber sighed, but nodded. “Fine. But call right away if ye need help, ‘cause Sylvia here’s still waitin’ fer a chance te take her own bite out of ‘em.” He gestured to the huge axe he held, and I stifled a snigger at his affinity for naming weapons, before nodded and turning to the forest. I decided to change back to Shadow, needing something that would pass unseen, and lightning is hard to miss. Then, I disappeared.

* * *

Toothless glided down toward the field at the base of the hill that rose from the point, and Ember jumped off as he landed. “I need to go back,” she said, and turned toward the village’s direction. “Ember, wait!’ Hiccup called, jumping off. Toothless beat him to it though, swinging his tail around and blocking her way. She glared at the appendage and tried to push it out of the way, to no avail. Hiccup grabbed her shoulder. “I can’t let you go,” he said. “And I can’t let your village die for my own mistakes,” she shot back, throwing his hand off. “They’re after me, and they’ll take out anything and everything they find in their way to make sure I don’t reveal what I figured out.”

Silence fell for a moment, and Ember looked away. “I made a horrible mistake, and I’m not going to let you all pay for it. You’ve already done so much, and I don’t deserve it.” She sighed and went around Toothless’ tail, and started walking toward Berk again. Hiccup ran up again and stopped her. “Look, if I know Hawken, he’s not going to let you join that fight anyway. And you said you would trust us, so maybe you need to show you’ll do so now. Hawken had me keep you away, and he’ll keep to his decision.” He then smiled. “Besides, if I know him, I will lose my leg again before he lets some old serpent get the best of him.” Ember raised an eyebrow, and began to ask what he meant by “lose his leg again,” before a bone-chilling noise sounded out.

HHSSSRRROOOOOAAAAAAARRRRR!!!

  
The trees began shaking as something very large and very angry approached them. Hiccup, Ember and Toothless glanced at each other, then began backing away from the direction of the noise. “Then again, there’s a first for everything. GO!!”

* * *

I raced through the trees, trying as best as I could to catch up to the two elongate reptiles. Soon enough they came into view, following a faint scent trail from the trio that had flown by beforehand. I raced ahead of them and erected a thick shadow wall, before reinforcing it with a layer of ice to buy some time, and then shot ahead once ore toward Raven Point meadow. Behind me, I heard a deafening explosion and a terrifying roar, and I felt the shadows around me ripple in reaction as the wall began to break apart. Forging ahead, I reached the meadow and materialized, spotting Hiccup leaping up onto Toothless and Ember running in the opposite direction from the chaos behind me.

“Get in the air!” I yelled at Hiccup, changing human and running toward Ember. To her, I yelled, “To the trees!” I grabbed her wrist and began pulling her along faster. Toothless launched himself up into the air soon after, and spun to face the oncoming danger. Ember and I, meanwhile, dove into the forest, concealing ourselves in the darkness as we ran, me having to guide Ember to keep her from running into the trees and at the same time building up energy for a massive jolt, should I have a need for it.

Suddenly, everything went silent. The crashing of trees halted, I couldn’t hear Toothless either. I slowed, and turned to glance back at the clearing now far behind us, but there was nothing visible. Then, a low, reverberating hiss rose up through the trees.

“You are here, Ur, and you know why we came. Your allies are in shambles, broken and defeated.” I couldn’t help but snort at that. “Surrender yourself, and we’ll leave the rest of them alone. If not…” The threat hung in the air, palpable tension building again. I glanced at Ember. “Ur?” She nodded. “Old Hebrew word for ember or fire. They use it to toy with me.” I frowned, and my brows furrowed deeply as I faced the direction of the meadow once more, waiting for something to make a move.

“She’s there!” the younger serpent suddenly cried, and I saw him bolt from the trees across the meadow. Immediately, a high-pitched whistle sounded; Toothless had been waiting for the targets to present themselves. The sea serpent barely dodged to the side in time as the ground erupted from the explosion of an indigo fireball.

“Run!” I yelled again, and we both turned to bolt. “Where are we going?” Ember cried, and I glanced over at her as we dodged the trees. “Trust me,” I said, and focused forward, running toward the western shore, where I knew we’d be able to at least lose, if not trap, the serpents. First, though, I then realized there was another wide open meadow we had to cross.

We reached the open grass just above the final stretch of trees on the hill below us, and I turned again to face the forest behind. “They’re coming right through here!” I yelled to Ember. “Keep running!” She nodded, and I looked up to see Toothless diving down again, preparing to fire, but before he could, the nightmare we’d shared came to life: the older serpent showed himself once more, and as Toothless aimed for the younger one, he swung his force field-enhanced tail in a great arc through the air, slamming the wide fin against the Night Fury. Toothless screamed in pain and fell, and I watched helplessly as he ploughed into the trees somewhere off to my right. “No!” I hissed in fury, backing up so that I could get some more room, as both sea demons began to reveal themselves, sliding into the open between the trees.

* * *

Toothless had been hit hard, and it was all Hiccup could do to hold on as they crashed through the trees and into the ground, plowing through the dirt. Once they came to a halt, Hiccup groaned and unhooked himself, both thankful and sickened at the thought that Toothless had hit directly instead of he, as the dragon was designed to survive a crash, and he wasn’t. He ignored the pain running through him from the bruises and cuts now adorning his arms and legs, and rushed up to Toothless’ head.

“Come on, bud, wake up!” he urged. “We need to move, come on!” Toothless didn’t respond, having been knocked out cold by the crash, and Hiccup felt something he rarely ever did: rage, unadulterated and boiling. He felt behind him, where Framherja was practically buzzing with energy now, and his mind flitted for a mere moment to the drawings he’d seen from his desk. Nodding, he looked around to make sure he knew exactly where Toothless was, and started running toward the western meadow, pulling out Framherja in the process.

* * *

The serpents both towered above me, and soon Ember as well as I sensed her stop running, refusing to let me go through whatever was coming alone. They both grinned wickedly. “End of the line, Ur!” the leader taunted. “You have certainly given us such a hard time, and you took my best eye, something I’m not going to forget any time soon either, but lo, what a prize you’ve led us to: the dragon’s guardian, and even more one from another world! Our master will be so pleased: the flame from the land of Israel, and a powerful messenger all in one go!” I shot a glance at Ember, who just stood her ground, grabbing the one weapon she still had on her: a very small sword.

“I do not fear you!” she yelled. “I’ve managed to get this far despite all your best attempts, against the will of you, the demons, all of _her_ lackeys, the worst Hell can throw at me! What is going to stop me from ending the war after this if you can’t even manage to deal with one girl?!”

A chill crept into the air as the younger serpent looked at me, a menacing hungry look playing in his eyes. “We could always kill your new friend right here, right now.” He looked at the older serpent, who nodded. I knew what was coming, so I shunted the energy I had built up to my hands, and balled my fists. The young serpent cocked his head back, locked on me, and lunged. “She’s ours now!!”

* * *

Hiccup reached the plain just in time to spot the younger serpent about to strike down Hawken. While he knew the teen probably had something up his sleeve, at this point his rage truly boiled over. On reflex, he raised Framherja, pulled back the string, and screamed out, “TOUCH HIM AND DIE!!!” as he released.

A flash and the sound of thunder echoed immediately across the island as the serpent shrieked in agony and fell to the ground.

* * *

I pulled back my fist as the serpent lunged, mouth open, and my hand began to glow. Then there was a loud yell from my right, and suddenly, I had no need for the energy as something flashed brightly and a bolt of electricity cracked through the air, exploding on contact with the serpent’s head. He shrieked and fell to the side from the force, being knocked unconscious as he hit the ground. We all turned to see Hiccup step into the open, a black anger I’d only seen once clearly written across his face. He nodded to me, then aimed up at the older of the two attackers.

“That was for Hawken. I know evil when I see it now,” he stated loudly. “Anything that attacks me or my friends here will NOT live to see the next day, not on my watch.” He pulled back the string on Framherja, and a thin, buzzing string of electricity formed across the gap in the bow. “Make a move, demon,” Hiccup hissed. “I dare you, the next dozen shots will be for Toothless.”

Silence. Hiccup held the bow straight toward the remaining eye of the snake, and I heard Ember move to stand between him and me. Finally, the serpent did do something, but it was a move completely unexpected: he dropped to the ground, and Hiccup instinctively fired, setting off a chain reaction of explosions in the trees behind the intended target. The serpent chose this moment to lunge at Hiccup, and I jumped up, bringing one of my still fully charged fists down into his side. The resulting overload completely fractured and broke the barrier field he wore, and I watched in satisfaction as stripes of blood ripped open across his scales, the protection turned to another weapon.

<AAAAAHHHH!!!!> he roared, and spun to face me. Ember ran over in my direction and got behind me. “Fly,” she whispered loudly, “lead him to the sea stacks. We can lose him there.” I nodded, glad she’d caught on to my original plan, and I morphed to Wind Fury, waiting only a moment while Ember climbed on as an extra incentive to the serpent before we both took off. The reptile only barely missed us as I shot upward and turned toward the sea stacks, and the close miss was enough to get him after us.

“Get back to Toothless!” I yelled over the wind down to Hiccup, who nodded and turned to do so, but not before he released another shot, shearing off the tip of one of the serpent’s horns. To keep the reptile focused on us, though, I fired a Night Fury fireball straight over his nose. Then, I turned again out to sea.

“Hold on tight!"I yelled to Ember, and raced across the trees, shaking the branches, with the serpent in hot pursuit. “I will make you burn like your name!” he screeched after us, and suddenly I found myself dodging a stream of acid venom. I cut to the left, and dove down the cliff at the edge of the island, smirking as a pained roar echoed across the island from the serpent as he crashed over it and down to the beach.

The sea stack maze was just up ahead, and I pulled my wings in tighter as we neared. “Lean as close to me as you can,” I ordered, and we shot into the rocks. Thundering cracks and roars of rage and pain were heard from our pursuant, unable to maneuver as well as I through the labyrinth. I flipped and twisted, scraping past the rocks with inches to spare, as I headed for a spot I used very often in races against some of the larger dragons.

“There’s only so far you can keep going before you hit open water, guardian!” the serpent hissed. I rolled my eyes. “For the love of…. _what_ is with the guardian label?” I griped, but stayed focused ahead of me, facing a narrow passage leading into a circular trap. I dove in, and the serpent followed, barely squeezing in behind me. I shot upward as I entered to the top as the serpent slammed into the side, told Ember to get off and stay flat as she could against the rocks, and then dropped again down into the trap with the serpent, but not before firing at a boulder that I had left teetering above the entrance, causing it to give way and fall into the entrance, blocking any direct escape.

“You’re trapped in here now,” I said, hovering to one side. The serpent looked at me after he shook off the daze from his collision, and smiled. “And there’s no way you can get out either before I get a hold of you,” he hissed right back, and lunged.

The thing about Wind Furies though, besides the fact that I was the only one, is how they got their name: moving faster than any wind possibly can. Night Furies can just barely break the sound barrier in short bursts, but I could move at speeds far beyond that. I dodged the attack more than easily, and began circling the passage around and around the serpent, moving faster with each rotation. Like always too, the faster I moved the louder the wind screamed, and still I kept up.

Up above, Ember began to quickly notice the screaming whistle below, and that the air nearby was starting to become rough and turbulent. In the trap, as I spun I pulled the air with me, creating a vortex of immense power. Eventually, I reached that famed record point for the Furies: I broke the sound barrier, watching as the sonic blast exploded outward, cracking one of the serpent’s bared fangs. The pull of the wind began to suck the water below upward as well, filling the trap slowly.

Even as I slowly circled upward, the speed at which I was moving now was pulling all the air out of the trap, both suffocating and submerging the serpent. I knew, though, he wouldn’t stay shocked for long, and suddenly changed directions, the effect creating another sonic boom which I dragged right over his head, knocking him out for a time, and then fired downward with a freezing breath, solidifying the water now risen up into the trap. Then, I shot upward, exiting the vortex still spinning within, picking up Ember as I escaped and rocketed away.

“What are you doing?” she yelled. “We need to get rid of him! He’ll get out of there sooner or later and come after us!” I glanced back at her and shook my head. “How right is it to kill anything when they cannot fight back? It’s not my place to do such things, nor yours, and the other serpent will surely wake sooner or later as well and find him. We all need to regroup and figure out a proper plan, to retaliate with a surprise.” I gave her a serious look. “I managed to be caught off guard by them, so if they can match me, we have something to worry about, big time, even if they’re unconscious.”

My biggest worry, though, was that the serpents knew who I was before they had come here, and they seemed to be fast learners. Someone else out there knew at least to an extent my capabilities, was aware I existed, and they knew enough to be careful of who they sent to face us here on the island.

We flew back over the western plain, and I noticed the second serpent beginning to move around again. “Okay, we need to find Hiccup and Toothless immediately,” I said. “Tell me if you happen to spot anything. I know it’s dark, but even with my sight I can still miss things.” I turned toward where I had seen Toothless go down, and dipped into the trees, both to have a better vantage point and steer clear of the unwanted visitor.

After a few minutes of searching, Ember tapped against my leg and pointed. I followed her gesture, and there was Hiccup, kneeling down over an unmoving Toothless. I spilled air and landed none too silently, letting Ember slide off to the side.

Hiccup immediately spun and raised Framherja, but relaxed when he saw me. “I thought you were the serpent for a moment,” he muttered, and turned back to Toothless. “I can’t get him to wake up, but he is breathing.” I walked over, melting back to human, and knelt over Toothless, examining him. There were scrapes and bruises covering him of course, and Hiccup had none too few of his own share, but what I was worried about was the notable swelling forming on the top of his head.

“He’s got a concussion,” I said. “Stand back, both of you. He might be groggy when I bring him out of this, and I’m sure we all know what a dragon in a bad mood can be like.” Hiccup and Ember both nodded and stood back a ways, as I placed a hand carefully on Toothless’ forehead, searching for the root of the problem. Once I found it, I sent a shock of energy into him.

Immediately the cuts visible on his hide sealed up, and the swelling deflated to a normal appearance again. Toothless groaned, but didn’t quite wake up.

“Toothless,” I whispered, “Come on, wake up. I need you to get up, we can’t stay h”-

Toothless’ eyes snapped open, and his pupils slit. In a flash, he sprang up and pounced, pinning me firmly against the ground. Hiccup began to move forward to help, but I held a hand out, telling him to stay where he was. Toothless snarled at the movement, and glared down at me.

There was silence for a couple seconds, then Toothless blinked, and his eyes dilated. He sucked in a breath of surprise. <Hawken! I’m sooo sorry!!> He quickly stepped back off me, and I smiled as I sat up, cracking the kink he caused out of my back. “Don’t worry about it, I was kind of expecting that reaction anyway. Are you feeling a little better?” He sat back and huffed. <A little groggy,> he growled as he glanced at Hiccup and Ember. <What happened?>

“You were knocked out, we have two trapped and/or unconscious serpents who luckily still think ember and I are out in the forests running around somewhere, and your rider finally figured out how to work Framherja,” I explained quickly. Toothless glanced at Hiccup, who just gave his friend a ‘we’ll talk about this later’ look. I agreed with him, and stood up. “But, right now we have things to do, not the least of which is get back to the village. The bigger serpent won’t stay trapped long once he actually wakes up, and they both learn fast. We need to put together a new plan.”

Toothless nodded, and bent down, looking at Hiccup expectantly. He nodded and walked over, hopping in the saddle, while I morphed to match the Night Fury and nodded to Ember, who followed Hiccup’s example and carefully got on my back once more.

As we sailed through the air, just above the trees to avoid detection, Ember leaned down next to my ear. “Thank you, for all your help,” she said. “I don’t deserve it though. This was all my big mistake.” I looked back at her and smiled. “Don’t be so hard on yourself, you’re only doing what you can and think is right. I don’t have much choice anyway; I was given my abilities particularly for situations like this.”

Ember nodded, and looked up at the sky above us. “I just hope we can end this with them, though,” she said quietly. “I’ve been against their master. If they get away, it will never end.”

Behind us, a screaming, hissing roar echoed from the western shoreline once more. <You will pay Ember!! Wherever on this island you hide, wherever you try to run, we will find you, and you will burn until all that’s left is your name!!>

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with this chapter, we begin to really start pulling at the history of Hiccup's world. Sea serpents have a lot more to them than it might seem at first glance, and their origins are not a bright one.


	8. Ember's Tale

The sun was just beginning to break the horizon when we landed back in the village again. The others had managed to dispose already of the dead sea serpent (many, many burn marks and drag lines were in evidence up to the cliffs), and some of the villagers were working on the damaged houses while others tended to the injured and still-unconscious Vikings. Most of the ones who had been hit by the serpent’s energy pulse were awake again, but a handful were still out. Toothless and I landed in front of the Great Hall, where Stoick was waiting.

“Are they gone?” he asked as soon as we touched down. “Not quite,” Hiccup answered. “They still think we’re out in the forests somewhere, though, so we probably have a couple days at best before they figure out to actually head back here. They at least know enough that Ember doesn’t want to risk us.”

Stoick sighed. “Then we need te figure out how to end this, for good.” He turned to me, and I melted back to human after Ember got off. “Why exactly are these creatures attacking anyway?” He pointed to Ember, who winced at the gesture. “I most certainly heard the big one call her name, and I also know for a definite fact that most sea serpents cannot talk.” He crossed his arms in a demand. “Someone had better care to enlighten me as to why these sea demons decided to follow our visitor here.”

There was silence as we all inadvertently focused on Ember. Finally, she sighed, and muttered, “They work for a sorceress named Jezebel.”

I raised both eyebrows at that. “Jezebel?” Hiccup queried. Ember nodded in response. “She was named, supposedly, after a wicked queen of many years past, who threatened to destroy my ancestor’s way of life.”

I nodded, knowing the tale, and figuring out where this was headed. “So, when you said this wasn’t over, you weren’t kidding.” She nodded. “Yes, regrettably I’m sure of that part. Jezebel wants me, and more specifically wants me dead, because of what I managed to dig up. It’s a rather long story, however, especially for right now.”

Stoick snorted. “Well, then, you’d better get talking. The sooner I know the cause, and why they’re after ye, the sooner I can make a decision about you and hopefully start figurin’ a way te get rid of these monsters.” He turned and motioned for us to follow him up the steps and into the Great Hall, whistling a nearby Terror to him and sending it to find Gobber, Astrid, and the other members of his warrior’s council, along with the other teens due to their experience.

Once they and all their respective dragons had arrived, Stoick gave a stern look to Ember, who sighed. “Well, I guess I should, uh, start from the beginning of this whole mess, huh?” We nodded, and she carefully sat down on the edge of the fire pit.

“Five years ago,” she began, “I lived just outside of Jerusalem, Israel. At that time we faced the same sort of problems that you all did here, Stoick. Every month, sometimes more often, dragons of all different kinds would appear from the sky and raid our village, seemingly attempting to burn us to the very ground. It had been like this for well over a hundred years prior, and no one actually knew why, save that we thought we were simply food in the dragon’s eyes.” She shut her eyes, memories clearly coming back, and took a deep breath.

“I was born on a day coinciding with Yom Kippur, or what in common tongue would be called the Day of Atonement, at least in our beliefs, with a birthmark resembling a burning flame on my neck.” She turned and carefully lifted up her hair. Indeed, underneath there was exactly that: a scar like image of a flame. I unconsciously rubbed my neck, where my own birthmark resided.

“It was one of the other reasons for their giving me my name,” she continued. “Anyway, like all the other villagers I grew up learning how to fight the dragons from a very young age. I was extremely proficient with my bow and arrow, so I was given a rather specific task. We have a species of large stealth-type dragon that I became specialized in hunting, as I learned to spot the faint signs of their invisible figures. It doesn’t always work, however, so I never progressed beyond trying to down them.

“One night, there was a particularly severe raid, and fire rained from the sky like it always did. I had run out with my bow, arrow strung, like always, but for some reason that night I hesitated when my next target revealed itself.” Ember sighed, and I could see melancholy welling in her eyes. “This species of dragon never fired unless it was visible, I theorized due to the concentration or energy required, but in any case this one didn’t fire at me. It was small, a runt really, for a member of the Shadowracers, as we called them. As I spotted it, I could see it had also easily spotted me. But instead of shooting, I let it land. Or really, I should say it made me step back, with a look I’ll never forget, feeling as if I’d seen something different in this dragon’s eyes than the murderous flame in all the others. I saw instead of rage, a mixture of fear, confusion, determination, but also hope, mixed into one.”

I looked at Hiccup, and I could see his own memories of his first encounter with Toothless were coming to mind. Ember looked down at the ground, before taking another breath and continuing. “The look the dragon gave me shocked me enough that I inadvertently dropped my bow, and apparently that’s what the Shadowracer was waiting for. It shot forward, picked me up, and flew away. But, to my great surprise, it didn’t tote me in the direction of where we knew the dragons live. Instead, it flew north, to a small mountain range in the opposite direction.

“It dropped me there, on top of a barren rock, and then landed as well. In my shock I fell hard, before getting up and trying to bolt away. The dragon stopped me, of course, swinging its tail to block me. Then, it did something I would not have expected in all my life: it spoke.”

Ember lifted up her hands to emphasize this. “My entire world completely turned on its head in that instant. Here I was, cowering beneath a creature I’d been taught was evil, nothing more than a mindless killer, and he was talking, in my language and on a level of intelligence I’d expect from my own people!!”

Hiccup leaned toward me and whispered, “Sound familiar?” I smiled, trying not to chuckle, and Ember gave us a look. “Sorry, go on,” I apologized, wiping the smirk off my face. She blinked and shook her head. “A-anyway, turns out the real problem was another dragon, a creature much like the Red Death told about in your now widespread tale, controlling the other smaller species. The Shadowracer that found me had been ignored, however, left out for being a runt and seen as small and useless.”

This time it was Spitelout who sniggered. “Oh, just like Hiccup used to be, eh?” We all turned to him and I smacked him upside the head with my tail. “Forgive him, Snotlout’s father,” I told Ember. “Ah, well, that explains it,” she muttered. “But back to the explanation: I came to name the Shadowracer Orhaganuz, which translates into the common tongue as ‘hidden light.’ He had watched for years as our two races warred, never quite gaining the courage to step in and try to solve the problem, until that night. He asked for my help, after explaining all this, and after what he told me, and shown me, there was no way I could refuse.

“We prepared for weeks, discussing the right way to go about addressing this problem, what we would say and do, before we finally attempted to approach the people of my home. Both Orha and I were nearly killed on sight when he flew into the village square with me on his back, and we were at spearpoint for over an hour as we desperately tried to explain what was really happening.” Ember shook her head at the memory. “To make a long story short, they agreed to at least let us try and show them the problem, and we ended up taking down the demon controlling the other dragons. We lost many that day, but those left and the dragons found common ground to join together afterward, and we began to rebuild our disheveled lifestyle.”

Ember stood up and gestured to Hiccup, then the dragons. “What I did is close to what you did, though I had many more people to back me at the time. And, for nearly three years we lived in peace, and prosperity.

“Then, without warning, savage attacks began again. They weren’t from the dragons that lived with us, thank God, but from an entirely new force, that had been waiting for the turning point I brought on. These dragons did not attack like in the raids before, with haphazard fire and individual raiding animals in a horde. Nor did they look anything like what we had once fought. They were faster, they strategized, and they had been trained. And, though they would have once been recognizable as wyverns, these dragons had been misshapen and changed physically and mentally, possessed by powers beyond this earth. Those of us who could began to fight again almost immediately. With our dragons by our side we actually stood a chance, until Jezebel arrived herself.

“She came riding on the back of one of the demonic dragons she controlled, claiming that she was the new ruler of our land, on a mission from a higher power. Some of my village took one look at her, riding the creatures that now plagued us once more, and chose to give up right then and submit to her. The rest of us had seen clearly what her forces intended, what they brought to our home. We refused her, and she gave us a warning, a choice, before leaving with a swear that she’d be back.”

Ember sighed and smiled sadly. “Orha and I, though, we couldn’t just leave well enough alone and stay around the village to prepare for battle. Instead, we got it into our heads to follow Jezebel, tailing her back to the hideous fort that she ordained to call a palace, and decided to snoop about.” She chuckled at this thought. “After dealing with stealth dragons as long as I had, you end up picking up on a lot of their traits. Anyway, I watched the sorceress for two whole days, staying out of sight using what I learned from Orha, and I stumbled across a dangerous secret she held: some sort of device, I assumed enchanted, and it looked like a big green jewel. She was using it to hold captive a group of powerful guardians.” She glanced around at the people gathered around her. “If I told you the names, you would probably find them familiar, as they are the sources of many of your legends.”

Gasps of surprise went up from some of the council members, and Stoick held up a hand to pause her in her story. “How can that be?” he asked. “Our beliefs and our traditions have been in place for hundreds of years.” Ember nodded. “Yes, and Jezebel’s been around for a long time, kept alive by black magic. The guardians are held in a sort of stasis, trapped between dimensions outside our visible world and unable to break free. If they could, Jezebel wouldn’t have been able to gain the power she wields now, and they’d probably exist as far more than the myths of gods and monsters they are now.” She shook her head.

“But, back to what happened: I’m not perfect, and neither was Orha, and not long after I found that device one of the guards of her ‘palace’ found us hiding out within a high room. When we tried to escape, they went after us immediately. We nearly managed to reach the village before a lucky shot knocked us out of the sky, and attacked.” Ember shuddered. “I got away, but only because Orha sacrificed himself for me. Orha…well, to put it simply he was captured. Not a day goes by still without me hearing his scream that day, when they ripped us apart.

“Jezebel returned to the village the next day, demanding not only our immediate surrender but also my blood in recompense for my trespass. When my people refused, she attacked. We were nearly wiped out; nearly my entire family disappeared in one afternoon. The few of us left fled immediately, unable to stay in the ruins our home lay in, and went to hide in the mountains to the north. My father was one of the only survivors and…the only… one, of my family to make it out. He insisted I leave there to go get help, or at least flee to safety. I refused, at least until the sorceress tracked us down again. This time, though, she also returned with Orhaganuz.”

Ember choked back a sob, and looked up at us, tears breaking. “He wasn’t the same. They’d… they’d done something to him, much like the wyverns Jezebel’s army commanded. He was mostly the same physically, unlike the others, but they’d cursed him, wrapped his mind beneath black magic and demons. Jezebel set him loose as soon as she found us, and he began to lay waste to men and dragons alike, a monster in my friend’s guise. We fled again, but Orha continued to hunt us, following our part wherever we tried to escape to. This went on for weeks, before he suddenly disappeared. He’d been sent on a new mission, and stories began to emerge of a monster dredged from the depths of Hell, sent to kill anything that moved. These tales slowly spread across the continents. A small group of our still loyal Shadowracers went out to try and find him, them having the only chance of stopping Orha, but I never heard if they found him.

“But, after all of this a small sliver of hope did manage to reach our party, another story of a different kind: a Viking village that had found the same truth we had, with a boy who had ended a three-century war like Orha and I had, and allies with someone who was said to have powers unlike any other alive who protected them.” She gestured to me. “Now I know the truth behind those tales, and honestly the tales, wild as they are, still don’t measure up to you guys in person. But, at this point there were so few of us that the rest of my party sent me off in hopes at least I would survive, maybe set off with what little I still owned to find Berk, and you Hawken. My journey was no easier than the rest of my life, however.

“From Israel to Scandinavia, the journey by foot is normally well over three months straight. I started nearly a year ago, heading here, and found out rather quickly Jezebel’s forces were following me. Jezebel knew that if I reached help, there would be a chance of me at least escaping, maybe even being able to fight against her once and for all, so she ordered my death, by nearly any means.”

Ember stood up slowly, another sad smile etching her face, as she faced the hall doors. “My saving grace I think is pure luck. I am not easily tracked, and if I am near another village Jezebel’s lackeys wouldn’t risk coming after me until they built up strength enough to wipe it out completely, as even she didn’t want to risk her own tales spreading. Plus, the demonic spirits that fight for her once would often come after me in physical forms, when out in the wild where others couldn’t see, and not too long ago they stopped appearing so often in such forms.” That caught my attention, as it was no doubt connected to what Hiccup and the gang had accomplished west of Narnia five months before.

Ember turned back to us. “I really almost didn’t manage to make it here, as I’m sure you figured out when I washed up, and now that I am here, if the serpents don’t succeed in finishing me off, then they will attempt to escape so they can notify Jezebel.” She held up her hands in apology. “I’m so sorry now that I’ve brought all this to your doors, but something needs to be done and I at least had to try, since I need help. Jezebel won’t stop with my home.”

Not surprisingly, there was complete silence as everyone present thought over the information Ember had provided. It was certainly a lot to take in. I stayed quiet on the matter, waiting for someone else to speak as everyone already knew what position I would take on the matter: one way or another I would fight.

Finally Astrid stood up. “I say we figure out how to end this,” she announced. “Ember’s words, while outlandish, certainly aren’t any stranger than having Hawken as a friend, and what she told us before held as true. Plus, we’ve all seen before that when Hawken stands for something, it’s probably the right thing to do.” “I agree,” Hiccup spoke up, standing with Astrid and I in support, soon followed by Toothless, Thorn, and then the other dragons in the hall.

“Ye realize that this is gonna take a whole lot o’ manpower,” Gobber said, standing up. We all nodded. “Very well then,” he decided, “I’d better get back te the forge an’ start workin’ again.” “Hold on Gobber,” Stoick ordered, stopping the smith as he turned toward the doors. “We don’t even have a plan fer how we’re going to do this.”

“Eh, shouldn’t be too hard,” Tuffnut piped up from the back of the room. “We just need to trap the worms in a hole and blow them up!” “There isn’t a hole big enough on this island to fit your head, let alone those creeps, dimwit,” Ruffnut replied, smacking her brother upside the head.

“Actually, he might be on to something,” Hiccup said, drawing surprised looks from all of us. “Yeah, I can’t believe I said that either, but we may not need a hole, just the right vantage point. And I think I know just where to find one.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One little tidbit that is annoying about this site, and you might notice the formatting change in the chapters because of it: it's not copying over the indentations on paragraphs anymore. I'm getting too tired to go in and put them all back in here, so just leaving it as is.   
> Beyond that little note: now we've got some real background on the history of this particular fan universe, and it's gonna be of extreme importance from here on out. Numerous distant lands touched or talked about, individuals who helped build myths and legends, and modern conflicts to bring them all together....


	9. To Trap a Serpent

“Toothless and I have done a lot of exploring around the island, everyone knows this,” Hiccup explained. “Look, the northern side of the mountains is riddled with narrow valleys and canyons.” He gestured to the map of Berk we’d laid out across the rim of the fire pit. “There’s especially a large number in the western end. We already know that the serpents target Hawken and Ember, mainly Ember, so if we can station them as if they’re hiding out in the mouth of this canyon here”- he pointed to a steep box canyon at the northwest corner of the range, “-we can draw them in, and ambush them there.” He glanced at Astrid, who nodded and took up the next portion of the explanation.

“If the serpents can be led into the middle portion, we can line the tops with crossbows and ballistae. If they’re all fired at about the same time, we should be able to immobilize them long enough to hopefully get in closer and finish them off.” She drew up a general sketch of the idea on a separate piece of paper I’d provided. “We’d need large bows, bigger than anything we normally work with, and arrows that are strong enough to pierce the scales.”

“You’re forgetting these beasts are wielders of deviltry,” a voice rose from behind us. We turned to face its owner, Mildew. “What’s te stop them from using that to cut down the arrows and ropes and retaliate against all the villagers above?” “The dragons,” Stoick replied, standing up from the seat he’d taken. “Fire from the dragons at the right intervals can distract the serpents as we bring them down. If there’s one thing I did learn in our battle last night, it’s that they seem to only have concentration enough to be able to focus their power on one tactic at a time.”

“But defense is all the same,” Mildew argued. “What works against one attack can work on many. You shoot them and they’ll go on the defensive immediately.” He glared at Ember. “She’s the one who caused all this, isn’t she?” he growled, pointing at her. “So, let’s just get rid of her now and end the problem!”

“We’re not into sacrificing people Mildew,” Stoick shot back, “unless you’re willing to be the first volunteer.” He gave the old crank a look that could freeze magma in its tracks. “And, at this point there’s no guarantee that they’ll leave us alone even if we were to take Ember off the island. We have a chance to end this, one that may help others outside our own village as well, so we will take it. And I’ll not hear any more words against that from you.” He turned his look to Astrid, though it softened upon reaching her. “Use more than just dragons and crossbows. We’ll figure out a way to erect traps that won’t matter if they use force fields or other defenses, and that will keep them held fast.” He stood up on the edge of the fire pit, making sure everyone could see him, and began to delegate orders.

“Gobber, take Hiccup with you and start building those crossbows and arrows. Astrid, you take Fishlegs with you and start scouting out the area Hiccup has outlined, but make sure above all else you keep out of the serpents’ sights. And Hawken,” he said, focusing on me, before looking at Ember, “take our new friend, and lead the serpents off and away from the village and where we’ll be working. The more time we have to prepare, the better.” I nodded, and slipped out of the hall with Ember in tow behind me.

“The sea stacks snake along the entire western edge of the island,” I told her, “and the northern stretch of the island is filled with thick forests for most of its area. If we can lead them there successfully, then we can keep them thinking you and I are in those woods for at least a couple days, if need be.”

“They won’t stay fooled for long, you know that,” Ember muttered. I nodded. “Well, even a few hours’ time should be all we need, hopefully, for the others to get set up.” I knelt down and morphed Night Fury, and gestured to Ember. “Get on, and let’s go. We certainly can’t wait here all day.”

* * *

The serpents were still near the sea stacks along the island’s west shore, skirting the beaches and searching the nearby forests. “Hold on tight,” I said to Ember, before diving down, roaring loudly and skimming right over the lead serpent’s head, even catching his scales with my claws. I glanced back as we soared on to see them both sit up in surprise, before taking off after us. Their eyes burned once more in anger, and I grinned and sped along the shoreline, trailing low and throwing up sprays of water in my wake. As hoped, the two marauders went right after us as we skirted the very edge of the mountains and then beyond a little ways, before banking sharply and skimming over the tops of the trees further inland. The crashing of pines soon signaled that they were following in hot pursuit.

“Keep them following us until we’re at least in the heart of the forest,” Ember said, “then lose them.” “Oh, I’m sure they’re not going to just give up,” I drawled. “You know what I mean.” I grinned. “Well, don’t worry, when it comes to it the disappearing should be the easy part.”

I dove into the trees, twisting and turning between the trunks, while the sea serpents behind simply ripped through them. “Ur! You can’t hide forever!” one of them yelled at us. “Your gatekeeper friend can’t save you either, nor you him!” “Oh, go take your tongue and shove it, spawn of Satan!” Ember screamed back, infuriating the serpents more, drawing them with us as we flew deeper into the forest.

* * *

The Vikings landed quietly as they could along the gorge, equipment in hand (or talons, in the dragons’ case), and Hiccup pulled out his spyglass, spotting the trail of damage that was being formed in the distance as the serpents barreled through the trees many miles off.

“Okay, so they’re thoroughly distracted for now,” he said, putting the spyglass away and instead grabbing out the blueprints he and Gobber had drawn up for proper crossbow placement. “Get these anchored securely, and then start working on the booby traps. Follow these coordinates here; I have to get back to the forge to finish the arrows.”

* * *

I snaked through the trees at a truly blinding speed, making Ember yelp and press herself to my back on multiple occasions as I barely avoided the trees around us. A smirk grew on my face however as the much larger serpents did not. I stayed just close enough so that they could see me through the thick growth, but far enough away that they couldn’t try and line up for a proper attack. The few times they did so only ended up cutting down more trees and slowing them.

As they yelled various curses at us and Ember volleyed back insults of her own (thankfully cleaner than our pursuers though, or my ears would have been bleeding), I focused forward, having drawn the chase out for nearly an hour through just the trees already and spotting my chosen destination nearing.

“Brace yourself,” I muttered to Ember, and she bent down as close to my neck as she could. I summoned up a great surge of energy, and let it drop to the ground below in a glowing, pulsing soon-to-be time bomb. The two of us continued, and behind the serpents soon neared the spot I’d dropped the energy weapon.

FLASH!!

A great burst of light exploded behind me, followed by the characteristic crackling that ice makes as a wall of it exploded upward. A very satisfying crunch was heard as the lead serpent barged right into it, followed by the younger one, and I dove to the side and out of viewing range as a slew of vulgarities spilled forth from behind. Once far enough away that I could slow down, I changed again, my scales warping the light around myself and Ember so as to become completely invisible. The two bigger reptiles soon busted through the ice wall, sending shards of the frozen crystals flying everywhere.

“Where are you Ur?” the leader screamed. “You can’t hide on this island forever, there’re only so many places to go before we find you again!” They slid past us, searching for the girl on the back of a Night Fury as I slowly backed away, almost completely unseen to the naked eye as I disappeared into the thick underbrush in the opposite direction as they continued deeper into the forest away from both us and the mountains. I guess we got lucky though, as only later had I realized they might have been able to track the two of us by scent, but the crash into the ice wall apparently ruined that for the two of them.

Once I couldn’t see or barely hear either of them anymore, I turned and silently took off once more, rising up into the air and heading for the western end of the mountains, where from here I could only barely see the Vikings toiling away around the canyon.

* * *

“We’ve got a problem,” Astrid grumbled, hopping off Thorn and walking up to Hiccup. He put down the arrow for the bow he and Fishlegs had been working on finishing setting up just before he’d returned to the forge, and turned to face her. “What happened?”

Astrid sighed. “It’s not what happened, it’s what won’t,” she griped, turning and gesturing to the sketch Hiccup had put up in the forge to help work off of. “We can’t implicate the hand-operated booby traps like your spikes, because the stream at the bottom has eroded the cliff sides and the soil is soaked this time of year. Anything we try to put into the walls will either get muddied up or work too slowly to cause any real damage to the sea serpents.”

Hiccup groaned and leaned against the wall, fingering the crossbow arrow he’d just finished. After a few minutes, Astrid got fed up with waiting for a reply and punched him in the shoulder. “Oww! What was that for?” “That was for apparently not having even the slightest idea for an alternative plan,” Astrid napped. “You’re acting like you didn’t even acknowledge what I just said!”

Hiccup backpedaled ad held his hands up. “Look, sorry, but these things don’t always just pop into my head. It’s just that figuring out how and where to hide the cross”- his words trailed off as an idea formed in his head. “What now?” Astrid asked testily, crossing her arms.

“The eel bow,” Hiccup replied. Astrid face palmed. “Sea serpents eat eels, if you recall,” she sighed. “Something like that is not going to”- “No, no, I mean it was designed to fire multiple arrows at a time if needed,” Hiccup explained hurriedly, turning and rummaging through the scraps and weapons lying around the smithy. “If we linked up hidden arrows in the cliff side on triggers tied with the main bow, and tied ropes or thin chains between them, then shooting the main crossbow would fire off something like a barbed net across the entire gorge, instead of just releasing one arrow.”

There was silence for a minute, before Astrid grinned again. “Hiccup, that’s brilliant!”


	10. Prepare the Snare

I came in low and landed near the head of the gorge, skidding on the gravel as Ember jumped off. Already I could see the first of the massive bows being set up all along the canyon, anywhere they could be hidden from the viewpoint below. What I wasn’t expecting, however, were the numerous dragons and Vikings scaling the walls of the canyon with ropes and modified shovels, digging holes deep into the sides of the dirt and rock. I demorphed to human and ran down the side of the canyon to where I saw Hiccup, recently back from the forge I assumed, helping Fishlegs and Snotlout position another crossbow.

What’s with the rock climbing?” I asked, startling Hiccup. “Gaahhh! Where did you come from?” he squealed, leaping upright. However at seeing the smirk beginning to grow on my face he immediately held up his hands in protest. “Never mind, don’t you dare answer that. As for your question: the booby traps we planned earlier in the bottom of the canyon won’t work thanks to the stream,” he explained, gesturing to the trickle of running water below, “so we’re modifying the crossbows to be able to attach to multiple strung arrows below, and when they fire it’ll be like a barbed net.”

I nodded. “I see, interesting idea. Though, just make sure no one ends up shooting me or Ember in the process. Also I hope you do remember that even bows like this will only injure, not kill, the serpents. Did anyone actually discuss how we’re going to finish the job?” Hiccup cocked an eyebrow as he hoisted a massive arrow into the nearby bow. “You do recall you’re talking about a group of people who usually kill first, then skip the questions, yes? We can probably just rely on my dad and the dragons to actually finish the job.”

“Or me,” Ember muttered quietly. We fell into silence, looking at her with perplexed expressions, before she sighed in response. “Look, it’s my fault already that we’re in this mess; it might as well be me who at least helps clean it up.” “There’s a problem with that, though,” I noted. “It’s also you they want. You actually try to go into battle against them, they might very well get their wish.”

“Okay, then, at least let me have a bow with me,” Ember retorted. “That way if things do go wrong, and there’s still a million ways they could, I’m not completely helpless either.” She looked over to Hiccup, who nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I’m siding with Ember on that one Hawken,” he said. “I’ll get you a bow, as soon as we head back to the village again. I’m sure we have a couple in the forge. In the meantime, both of you can help get the last few bows and arrows in place here.”

* * *

After another couple hours of slipping on stones and mud (and catching Snotlout and Tuffnut when they fell while goofing around again), everything was just about in place. A few more arrows forged and we would be set. I looked out over the island, and off in the distance, right at the edge of the northern shore, I could see the serpents, knocking over trees as they headed back toward the sea before coming inland again.

“Let’s get back to the village,” Hiccup suggested. “We’ve still got a lot to do before we can set off the trap.” The rest of us agreed, and we all got on to our respective dragons (or changed into them in my case), and as quietly as we could everyone took to the air, staying low and flying around the mountains to the village. When we all landed, Hiccup set off straight toward the forge again, with Ember, Toothless and I in tow. Once there he began rummaging through the piles of extra weapons that ended up stacked in the corners.

“Let’s see, there’s… no, not that…and we’ve got”-CLANG!-“OW! Not that! No there’s… oh, come on, I know they’re in… oh, here they are!” he finally exclaimed, pulling out a hardwood bow and a matching quiver of arrows. Blowing the dust off them, he handed the set to Ember, who took them gently and began looking them over.

“It looks… a lot like my old bow, actually,” she said. “The details are amazing on this too.” I smirked. “Probably because Hiccup made it. He’s got an eye for intricacies when he makes things.” Hiccup smiled and waved it off. “Eh, yeah, I always put a lot of detail into things though. It’s nothing really special.”

Ember glanced at Hiccup. “Wait, you actually made this?” He nodded. “What can I say? I’m a blacksmith and an inventor, I make things in my spare time. That usually includes weapons of all sorts.” “Yes, but making things that actually work like they’re supposed to every time,” I drawled, “well, that can be a whole different story.” Ember started giggling as Hiccup threw a punch at my shoulder.

* * *

The rest of the afternoon, I ended up at home, poring over college work. The official finals had been cancelled by the snowstorm, but unfortunately the teachers figured out online work to be done as a replacement, so I still had things to do. Being proficient in education thankfully meant I was done quickly however, and after setting up a crock-pot dinner for later, I slipped back through the portal and headed for the village.

Ember, Astrid, Hiccup and the two dragons were in the cove, setting up what appeared to be makeshift targets wherever they could. When they were all turned away from me, I grinned and pulled out a sword, throwing it and nailing one of the targets across the cove from me in the upper center. The crack of metal on wood brought all five of them into the air as they yelped, before turning to see me laughing up above on the cliff.

“You’re not funny Hawken!” Hiccup yelled. I flared a pair of wings and jumped down, gliding over to them. “Well, I guess it depends on who you’re talking to,” I replied. “From up there, yes it was funny. Anyway, what are the targets for?”

Hiccup shook his head in resignation and pulled out Framherja, pulling back the string and aiming for a nearby target. He let the screaming bolt fly, blowing the wood to bits. “That’s what they’re for. Astrid and I decided the cove would be a perfect place for training and sparring practice, so we decided to set up a makeshift arena. Ember decided to tag along too.”

I nodded and wandered over to grab the sword I had thrown, wrenching it out of the wood. Then, I turned around and held the blade up. “I’ve got something I want to try,” I said. “Hiccup, shoot the sword.” “Wait, but that’s one of your good swords!” Hiccup protested. “You know what Framherja does to things. I mean, it’s not one of our quartet swords, but aren’t those ones still expensive?” “Just trust me, alright? Shoot the sword.” Hiccup sighed, before raising Framherja and firing.

The bolt hit the sword, and I managed to freeze the energy in place, the electricity crackling along the surface of the metal. Then, grinning, I walked over to the pond, aimed the sword at the surface, and released the bolt.

The water exploded outward in a cascade of boiling liquid and steam, electric crackles dancing across the surface. A few seconds later, a few stunned fish floated to the surface. <Hey! Easy dinner!> Thorn exclaimed, making Toothless chuckle.

“How-how did you do that?” Astrid queried, pointing toward the pond and the fading ripples I shrugged. “Eh, something I’ve been practicing over the past few months. The Lightning Blazer can control electricity and convert energy, so I’ve been playing with the extent of that ability.” I grinned. “Actually, it’s a lot like how Fireworms can control heat and flames.”

One by one, we all looked at Toothless, whose face morphed into an expression of confusion. <What?> he queried uncertainly. I held out my sword. “Want some more fish?” The question made Ember, Astrid and Hiccup laugh, especially when Toothless got the hint, smiling as he fired.

The result of the redirected fireball on the water was equally impressive, much like the result of Framherja’s bolt. Soon, Thorn and Toothless were happily feasting on fish as I slid the sword back into its scabbard. “Well, one chore for later taken care of,” I mused, winking at Hiccup. “Now, let’s get working on your guys’ aim.”


	11. Misfire

It was time.

The Vikings and their respective dragons gathered in the village square, and group by group flew off to get in position, staying low and quiet to as not to draw attention. The last ones left were Hiccup and the gang, who flew up to wait for our signal, as I turned to Ember, a grim expression on my face.

“Ready?” I asked. “As I’ll ever be, I guess,” she replied. I nodded and knelt forward, morphing Night Fury and crouching down to allow her to climb on. “Hold on tightly,” I reminded, and as she bent low over my neck, moving her bow out of the way, I took off, racing straight up and over the mountains. One I reached the other side, beginning to cross above the forest, I flared my wings and slowed down, settling in for a peaceful glide. The idea was to try and act like we had our guard down, luring our quarry in with the feint. As it were, though, I could not see either of the serpents anywhere. No trees were being uprooted, no rocks fell from the mountain slopes; heck, I didn’t even see anything moving out in the ocean, by the coast or further out.

As we glided for a few minutes, the only sound being the wind over my wings and the occasional chirp of forest birds, I began to worry. “There is absolutely nothing out here,” I mused quietly, thinking. “Something’s wrong; we should have seen at least some sign of them by now.” “Well, I don’t see anything save for the trails they’ve made the past couple days,” Ember whispered back. “Could be they tried taking a page out of our book and are setting their own trap somewhere.” “Well, then, definitely keep your eyes open, but don’t make it obvious.”

We continued over the forest out toward the shore of the island, then down the coastline toward the sea stacks. Still, nothing showed itself. I began circling back toward the edge of the mountains again, seeing absolutely nothing.

“Well, this is productive,” I snapped sarcastically, still keeping my voice low just in case. “We try to set up a proper defense, run all over the island, and find nothing to boot. Oh, it will be so much worse if they’ve already left, because then we will have to”-

“HAWKEN LOOK OUT!!!” Ember screamed, pulling my attention immediately down and to my right. I had to bolt upward immediately and barrel roll to avoid the attack, almost flinging Ember off my back in the process.

Ember was right, the serpents had tried setting a trap of their own. Taking a page out of the Changewing’s book of tricks, they had camouflaged themselves within a thicket of trees and rock mounds, waiting in ambush and completely unseen. I barely swerved out of the way as my roll took me right toward the second serpent, the younger one lunging upward and nearly catching my wing.

“Geez!” I yelped, diving to the side and away as the pair took off after us once more. I I whipped my head around briefly and fired a shot at the younger serpent who held the lead, forcing him to duck out of the way, and the fireball continued on back until it smacked the leader directly in the face.

<AAHHH!!! You will pay for that!!> he yelled, smacking the smaller one upside the head for him not taking the shot instead before he took up the lead in the chase. I smiled at the comical image that had just taken place, and raced across the trees as I occasionally lobbed spheres of fire or ice at the demons in tow. “Finally, we found them,” I muttered. “Now to just keep up the act.”

The forest disappeared below us as I raced across the edge of the mountains, slowly decreasing the power and accuracy of my shots and slowing slightly in my flight, as if I was losing strength. Just as we neared the mouth of the gorge I turned again and powered up an electric ball to attack, then let the energy fizzle out in pathetic sparks. I glanced back momentarily to see the two serpents smile. “Well, what a pleasant surprise,” the leader sneered. “You’ve finally run out of power. Nice to know you tire just like everyone else!” I bared my teeth in response. Then, as the mouth of the gorge opened around us and we began flying up the canyon, I pretended to falter in flight, dropping lower and lower until I finally “fell” to the ground.

“What are you doing?!” Ember exclaimed in mock surprise as we semi-crash landed. She jumped off as I immediately demorphed, grabbing my arm and pulling me as I staggered forward into the canyon. “Come on, we need to hide, now!” I nodded and took a couple of deep breaths before running with her.

We bolted into the canyon, water spraying up under our feet as we raced up the creek, little room on either side to run in a dry location. Water, however, also has the unfortunate side effect of providing drag and so slowed us down somewhat, allowing the tow sea serpents to nearly catch up to us. The pair rounded the corner and lunged toward us, missing narrowly and slamming instead into the sides of the gorge.

“Move! Move!” I yelled, grabbing loose rocks off the walls here and there and chucking them at our attackers. They of course did almost nothing, the few that made contact bouncing harmlessly off their scales, and the two serpents just laughed in response.

“Oh, come now, you’ve hit us with lightning, fire, and pure power,” the leader taunted. “Do you really think mere pebbles will deter us? Surely by now you see this is the end of the line; you can’t run much further!”

Neither Ember nor I replied, and we continued up the gorge, the oceanic reptiles right behind us. However, not too far ahead I could see what was truly the end of the line, the end of the canyon where the softer earth gave way to granite, and the stream poured out of a mere crack in a sheer wall ahead, far too small to squeeze into without being a Terror. We reached the dead end and turned around, backs against the granite wall, as the pair of serpents slowed down, laughing and rearing up in front of us.

“So much for running away,” the leader spoke up again. “Looks like we have won in the end, and Jezebel will no longer have that annoying little firefly,” here he glared venomously at Ember, “buzzing around her ear as she works anymore.” “If not me, then always some other warrior of God,” Ember shot back. “We’ll never be gone, death never wins in the end.”

The serpent only smiled almost condescendingly, not noticing as I grabbed a small dagger from my side and flashed it up to the canyon’s rim. “You have a lot of spirit for such a small being,” he mused. “Whether or not we win in the end, today death will take you. Let’s just get this over with now, shall we?” he almost hummed in mock cheerfulness, before lunging.

TSCHEEEWWWW!!!! TSCHEEEWWWW!!!! TSCHEEEWWWW!!!! TSCHEEEWWWW!!!!

The canyon filled with the sound of screaming arrows, and clouds of dust exploded from the walls as Hiccup’s rope nets were released, lined with arrow barbs and crisscrossing the gorge, piercing the hides of the serpents and pinning them into place.

<AAAHHH!!!> The demons screeched, squirming but in their shock unable to move very far without ripping their flesh on the barbs. The Vikings all immediately leapt up out of their hiding places, calling out for their dragons at the same time. The latter came flooding down out of the higher mountains and began strafing the serpents with fire, taking care to try and not burn the ropes pinning them.

I looked to Ember, who nodded, and then signaled Hiccup, who mounted Toothless and glided down next to us. I withdrew my quartet sword, powering energy into it and making it glow and hum, as Ember nocked an arrow and Hiccup drew Framherja. Toothless finished the ensemble as he bared his teeth and readied to fire. We marched forward toward the struggling serpents, who were apparently too discombobulated by the sudden ambush to fend off all of the attackers. I whistled sharply, catching part of their attention once more.

“My, how the tables turn so quickly: you are bound and bleeding, under attack from too many directions to fend off at once, and now you face us once more,” I said. “You should really have seen this coming; did you really think I would tire so soon?” The pair only barely glared at me as they continued to try and focus on keeping the Vikings and dragons at bay.

“We can make this easy or hard for you,” I continued. “You lose, and there is no way you will make it off this island alive, so I can end it all quickly or you can suffer that much longer.” The older serpent tried to snap at me, but his head was wrenched to the side by a blast from Toothless long before he got close. I nodded. “Very well, I guess it has to be the hard way.”

Wielding the energy in my blade, I doubled its size, brought it back behind my head, and swung hard. Hiccup and Ember both released their arrows, and Toothless released another fireball. At the same time, all four attacks collided with the serpent’s temple.

FLASH!!!BOOOOMMMM!!!! “AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!”

All four of us were thrown back against the canyon wall from the force of the explosion that followed. I groaned, before pulling myself to my feet to see what had happened.

My heart froze for a moment. Just like when we had fought the demonic rendition of Jormungandr, the serpent had taken the energy we had used against him, converted it, and used it against us. Worse, the explosion had cut through half of the ropes tying him and his accomplice in place, and he could move most of his upper body once more. Toothless roared and leapt up at the demon, who swung his head and knocked the Night Fury up over the edge of the canyon. I could hear pained yelps and roars as Toothless crashed and skidded across the rocks above, then the serpent swung his head back to face us.

The villagers and their dragons renewed their attack, regrouping and coming down again, but in the instant the explosion had occurred there had been enough pause for the pair to regain their senses and erect a barrier field above to block the remaining attacks, narrowing our allies’ window dangerously and leaving Hiccup, Ember and I far more vulnerable.

Before the serpents focused on us, however, they took a moment to pull themselves completely free of the arrows and barbed nets, giving us just a moment’s chance to get back on our feet. I drew a second sword, now wielding two in my hands, Hiccup pulled Framherja’s string back once more, and Ember nocked another arrow. Then, the demons’ focus returned to us, and our two sides faced off for a moment.

We were not prepared, however, for the pair to unleash a venom attack on us, having forgotten that attribute of theirs. From both of them, streams of the acidic spray jetted down toward us. I spun, flaring a pair of wings and blocked the attack, whipping the liquid off before launching myself at the lead serpent, swords spinning. Now, it was his turn not to expect such a fast recovery, and barely ducked his head to the side in time, so I only nicked him across the neck before landing on his back. Turning it to an advantage, I drove one sword into his side, hanging on tightly as he screamed and thrashed.

I was not able to hang on after the second serpent lunged for me, however, and fell off to the dirt. I glanced up to see the one I had just impaled twist and remove the sword before going after Ember again, and her and Hiccup were nearly wide open to the attack. I was unable to help, however, as the second demon forced me into battle with him.

A blinding flash appeared as Hiccup struck the leader, and I fired a plasma orb at my opponent, before leaping up and overloading the barrier field as I had done with the leader’s tail a couple nights before, causing it to break down and permit full attacks from the other Vikings again.

It wasn’t quite enough though, as my opponent had twisted around as I leapt upward and gotten into my blind spot, catching me off guard. As I came back down, the massive tail swept straight into me, knocking my breath out and sending me careening into the canyon wall. I hit, and immediately everything blurred out of view.

* * *

Ember barely noticed as her new friend slammed into the rocks, as she was trying hard herself to stay out of the range of the larger serpent.

“Oh, quit jumping around pointlessly and surrender already!” the demon yelled, snapping again at her, but instead getting an arrow t the cheek for his efforts, followed by an electric blast from Hiccup. The serpent turned to him, beyond furious, and swept his tail straight into the skinny teen. “Fine! I’ll take care of you first!”

Hiccup yelped as he skidded across the gravel, his hands and knees getting torn up as he lost his grip on Framherja. The serpent saw this and, after pausing for a moment to spew venom at the cloud of dragons descending on him to deter them, lunged down to get rid of the weapon.

“AAAAHHH!!!!!”

Instead of flinging the bow over the walls of the gorge like he planned however, an overload of electricity and pure pain ran through him, causing the serpent to jerk and spasm momentarily and drop the bow back to the ground.

“Forgot…to mention,” Hiccup grunted, grinning as he watched the weapon’s effect on the wrong person for the first time, “there’s only a couple people who can touch Framherja. The… punishment for the rest is great pain.” He stood up shakily and looked the demon square in the eye, still grinning. The serpent frowned and slithered forward, placing himself between Hiccup and Framherja. “Then as long as you can’t use it, you’re useless,” he hissed, and spun to face Ember. “Now I finish what I came here for,” he snapped, “getting rid of you for my master, and getting revenge for the eye you took from me!!” He lunged.

Ember jumped upward instinctively, almost impossibly high, and let an arrow fly straight into the serpent’s mouth. Whether it hurt or not, however, the serpent didn’t show as his gaping maw filled the young woman’s entire vision.

* * *

I was vaguely aware of the dragons covering me, fending off the younger serpent, and keeping him at bay as my vision slowly cleared once more. I stood up shakily, pumping healing into my wounds and clearing my head again. Once able to stand, I released another blast of fire at the serpent, knocking him out of my way just long enough for me to turn to try and help Hiccup and Ember again.

I was too late to do anything this time and froze, unable to move in horror, as Ember fired at the serpent with no effect. The demon’s jaws closed with a mighty bang over her and he fell toward the gravel, his prize finally caught. Then, he slowly titled his head backward, gulping as he began to swallow her.

“EMBEERRRR!!! NOOOOO!!!!” I screamed, energy racing into my arms as I powered up in one last attempt to simply take the serpent’s head clean off.

Suddenly, the serpent froze in his actions, and began heaving and coughing as it trying to expel his untimely meal in a panic. He opened his mouth and gagged, and what looked like smoke billowed from out of his throat, getting thicker and thicker, until roiling flames and a blinding light replaced it and burst from his jaws.

I stared in utter disbelief as on the outside of his neck, the skin began steaming, then bubbling and crinkling, before with one last utter scream of agony the serpent fell to the ground one last time, dead and burning from the inside out.

Words escaped every person present and there was silence, as the serpent’s neck continued to blacken, then flame, and finally turn to pure ash. And standing in the middle of the scalding remains was none other than Ember, her hair glowing bright red and wisps of flame flowing off her arms, slowly dying away to reveal the girl we had come to know. No one spoke still for a few moments, before Ember gave a shudder and her eyes closed as she collapsed. That finally stirred me into action as I jumped forward and caught her before she could hit the ground.

“I…I should have…should have remembered I could do that before, huh?” she wheezed quietly, a faint smile on her lips. I slowly grinned in response. “Well, it may have been a help, yeah.”

“Um, excuse me,” Hiccup spoke up, having broken out of his shock as well, “but we still have one big problem to deal with.” He pointed past us, and we turned to see the younger serpent still there, staring at us wide-eyed as the rest of us had been. At that point, he realized his position, and that we were once more aware of him, and immediately bolted out of the canyon.

“Take care of her!” I yelled to Hiccup, carefully setting down and then gesturing to the completely frazzled Ember, and bolted down the canyon myself, transforming and melting into the shadows as I ran. The serpent raced through the forest just barely ahead of me, and as I attempted to reach forward and grab him with the shadows surrounding both of us, he fired off miniature shields, blocking my attempts just long enough to race ahead a little further.

He finally managed to reach the ocean and plunged off the shore in a massive burst of water. I screeched in frustration, not missing a beat as I reformed and morphed into a Doomfang, diving in right after him. Though I was still slightly smaller, we were both in our element now, and I had experience, cold fire, and a personal vendetta on my side now.

The serpent was diving down and trying to disappear into the depths, so I put on a burst of speed, cutting the water fast enough to cause small shockwaves behind me, sending my figure forward even faster.

Right before I managed to catch up to him, however, the serpent flicked his tail, violent energy pouring off it and forming a massive vortex, sending him forward and downward. I could not change my trajectory in time, though, and swam right into it, the spiraling column of water sending me spinning out of control.

By the time I’d gotten my bearings again, the sea serpent was gone. I roared furiously in anger and released a jet of ice in my frustration, creating an iceberg that burst to the surface above me before I calmed down enough to think. Following the path of the iceberg I’d created, I returned to the air, changing back to Night Fury and rocketing back to the island.

Everyone looked up when I landed by the canyon. Astrid and Thorn had helped Hiccup and Ember up out of the gorge, and Hiccup was again trying to wake Toothless. I walked over and placed my hand on the dragon’s forehead, healing the concussion for the second time in a week, and he slowly groaned and opened his eyes.

<God, my head hurts,> he moaned. <I really need to stop doing this. What happened?> “You were thrown over the cliff,” I replied.

“Hawken, what happened to the other serpent?” Stoick asked, walking up to us with a look of great concern on his face. I shook my head. “He threw me off at the last second and vanished,” I replied, before turning and looking eastward. “We won this round, and he won’t be back for a while, but if we go by what Ember told us, that means we probably have maybe two months, maximum, before Jezebel seeks out her revenge.”

Stoick sighed, then looked around and nodded. “Then we’d all better get te training for war. If she’s been around as long as I think she has been, we’ll need every trick in the book.” “We’re going to need the other tribes too,” Hiccup added. “We won’t win this one on our own either.”


	12. Winter's Onset

Two days after the battle, everything began to melt back home, and I was stuck ferrying Holly to school every day (lucky for both of us she only had a couple weeks before break), but in Berk, the dead of winter finally took hold, with temperatures dropping well below freezing for days at a time and the snow piling up far beyond what I’d had at home. Thanks to this, I began spending more and more time around my house where, when I wasn’t busy with college stuff or raising the plants, I could practice and train in the back yard. Naturally, the few who could take advantage of this, like the teens, often showed up to spar almost daily.

Ember, on the other hand, never ventured further than the cove, always giving some excuse as to why she wouldn’t join us at least occasionally. At first, it didn’t concern me, as I was too busy with my own home life and the village issues stemming from our expected upcoming war. But, as the days wore on and mid-January approached, I plowed through the first parts of my college semester and ended up way ahead of my classmates, leaving me with a little extra time because of it, and finally began noticing her unexplained reluctance.

I came home one evening to find my mother with a note for me. “Hiccup came by earlier with this,” she explained, holding it out to me. “He says it’s important.” I took the piece of parchment and unfolded it, reading it over.

_Hawken,_

_I took Ember up to my room to work on her bow, which if you recall had been damaged by the serpents, and while I was smoothing out the details she noticed the projects you’ve been working on with the dragon scales, and passed out. I haven’t been able to wake her, nor even really move her as she began heating up like that time before. I thought you might have an idea what might be going on here, what with having direct experience with the “unexplainable” more than the rest of us, so we need your help here. Please come as soon as you get this,_

_~Hiccup_

I sighed and placed the note on the table, thinking it over for a moment. Honestly I had as much of a clue here as Hiccup did. Then, I folded it back up and put it in my pocket, and grabbed my quartet sword, just in case.

“Where are you headed?” my mom queried. “The note said there’s a problem concerning Ember, and nobody has a clue what’s going on,” I explained. “I need to get over there immediately.” My mom sighed in response, closing her eyes for a moment, before nodding. “Alright, just be back before dinner is done for once, will you? And I saw what the weather’s been like over there, so don’t catch cold either.” I laughed as I slipped out the back door. “Oh, come now, you know dragons don’t catch colds!” I exclaimed, before morphing Night Fury and slipping through the portal.

Just my luck, Berk was caught in yet another blizzard, and it had only just started, so flying was nigh impossible as a normal dragon. I changed instead to Blizzard, and began weaving through the storm toward the village. As soon as I reached Hiccup’s house I landed, walking up to the porch but not demorphing yet as I knocked on the door; too much snow to get covered by as just me. After a few seconds Stoick cracked it open and peeked outside.

“Oh, Hawken, good te see ye came.” He opened the door wide enough to slip in, then shut it before the snow could get in. I shrank back to my normal self now as he gestured to the stairs leading up to Hiccup’s room.

“We managed te get her onto Toothless’ rock before she burnt the floor too badly,” Stoick explained as I started walking over, “but unfortunately not without a price.” He held up a pair of blistered hands. My eyes widened, and I reached out for them. “We need to take care of that before it gets infected,” I said, “and it would be best not to wander through the village to Sigrid’s right now.” He nodded and let me take his hands, focusing for just a moment and restoring the reddened skin back to normal. “There, that’s more like it,” I said, nodding in satisfaction, before turning to head up the stairway.

As I entered the room, I was immediately hit by a wave of unexpected thermal energy, and grew a layer of scales over my face and arms to shield from the heat. Hiccup, standing nearby, had taken to donning what little we had made of the scale armor for a similar purpose.

“Hawken, I don’t have a clue what’s wrong with her,” he said, sliding off his bed and looking back over at the rock slab on the other side of the room, where Ember currently lay. Toothless sat at the back by my desk, looking on with concern as well. Ember herself was almost glowing, and her hair had turned a fiery golden color. I walked over and knelt by her, the waves of heat forcing me to adapt to an even higher tolerance. I was somewhat surprised the granite slab wasn’t melting yet, or at least glowing.

“And you said this happened right after she saw the scale armor I had been making?” I asked, glancing over toward Hiccup and, by extension, one of the nearly finished projects I had: a pair of Night Fury arm braces. Hiccup nodded in response. “She took one look at them, whispered something I didn’t catch, and slumped to the floor.”

Unfortunately for him, I was also baffled as he was. I reached out, and carefully placed a hand on Ember’s forehead, before reeling back as a jolt of energy ran through me and caused the air around to glow. Apparently her power included directing the heat to an extent. As I hit the floor though, an image passed through my mind as well, giving me at least a hint of what happened.

“Hawken!!” Hiccup yelled, running over to help me up, and almost running into Toothless who did the same. I shook off the dizziness and looked over at Ember, a ghost of an understanding smile gracing my features.

“Well, she’s fine, for now,” I said. “She’s put herself into a sort of trance. I’m guessing the braces reminded her of something and her body is reacting to the memory.” I gestured to the armor again. “And, I probably need to get back to work making more of those.”

“Why?” Hiccup asked, still somewhat lost concerning Ember too. “Ember is able to heat up or cool down like a Fireworm,” I explained, slowly standing up and walking over to my desk, picking up a remnant scale and looking it over. “She’s basically been born as a gifted, or guardian if you want to go by what the serpents kept saying. The marks that look like flames on her are the symbols she bears. But, to answer your question, the armor, at least Night Fury and Nadder forms, would be able to withstand her power, at least up to the point where they would melt.” I held up the scale. “The armor won’t melt until put under at least heat equal to Night Fury fire, so that gives a lot of room for her to work, and since I don’t know if that healing issue I had when she arrived was a condition of her gift or a one-time thing, it’s the perfect battle gear for her.”

I picked up my sword, and stabbed at the brace on Hiccup’s arm. He yelped in surprise, but calmed when the sword didn’t even make a mark. “They’re almost impenetrable in that state,” I noted. “Honestly, it would be good for everyone to end up wearing it. But it’s perfect for Ember. And once she wakes up, we can actually start working on a proper fit for her.” I glanced at Ember again, before looking back at Hiccup. “The state she’s in right now, I caught one image: a battle. She’s, uh, I guess meditating on the implications of what’s coming.”

A groan behind us cut off my musing, as we turned to see Ember’s hair begin to dim, and the heat radiating into the room began to die off, much to everyone’s relief. Ember slowly rolled to her side, and her eyes flickered open.

“W-what’s going on?” she groaned, trying to sit up. “Uh, nothing really,” Hiccup replied. “Nothing but, uh, just wondering about how you collapsed on my floor and started burning a hole through it, that’s all.” Ember grimaced at that notion, and looked around, catching sight again of the arm brace I held in my hand, and then registering the armor Hiccup wore.

She started again, before groaning and putting her hand to her head. “Ugh…I’ve never had that happen. I… I had images, memories of my battles, and the armor we wore looked like that, sort of. And, I think I had a vision about something coming…and we were all wearing those. Except you, Hawken.” She glanced around. “That must have been why I passed out.” I nodded, not really understanding everything that had just happened, but knowing we weren’t going to clear it up either anytime soon. “Well, this was all a little bit strange, even for me, but people getting thoughts and visions aren’t unheard of. I think it means though, that I should get back to working on this armor, make at least a few new sets.” I glanced at the other three in the room. “Care to join me?”

Hiccup walked over and peeked out the window in the side of his room (one of the few made of actual glass in the village). “Well, the storm’s abated a little. We might be able to safely travel to the forge.” He looked at Toothless, then Ember, as both nodded.

* * *

We spent a good portion of the evening in the forge, working on the armor and keeping warm against the storm that had picked up again and was raging just outside the front door. With not only Toothless and I but also Ember to help with controlling the temperature, melting the scales we had became a less troublesome chore, and we managed to actually begin molding new pieces. I only managed to get a couple chest plates done, however, before I realized I had promised my mother I would be home before nightfall. Though Hiccup, Ember and Toothless said they’d just continue working as they were (no point in them trying to fight through the snow again just yet), at least until it truly got too late, I had to slip out early. Stepping into the swirling snow and trying to ignore the frozen water blowing up my nose, I morphed into a Blizzard dragon once more and rushed home.

* * *

“I thought I said be back in time for dinner,” my mom quipped from the dinner table as I stepped in through the back door. “And don’t get all that snow on the floor either!” I sighed, looking down at the white powder that coated me, and heated up automatically, melting and then vaporizing the snow into a cloud of steam.

“Happy now? I steam-cleaned the sliding door as well,” I retorted, before walking over and grabbing a bowl for the soup on the stove. “Careful with your tone,” my mom warned. “I still own the house you live in.” As I walked back to the table I tried not to react any further, and sat down quietly.

“So what happened?” my sister asked, already at the table and halfway through her soup. I shrugged. “Oh, I just got distracted while I was there and started working on the scale armor we’ve been designing. It’s not a project that goes quickly, unfortunately.” Holly shook her head. “No, no, I mean what happened with your friend Ember?” she reiterated. I smirked. “Yes, I know what you meant. And, uh, she had a vision of sorts, caused her to pass out.” I took a mouthful of soup before continuing, smirking at the cringe both my mom and Holly made when I hadn’t even waited for it to cool. “That’s why I got distracted by the armor, actually: it’s really perfect for her, since it take a lot to melt it, the scales are extremely strong, and flexible. Or, at least the Night Fury version of it is.”

“So you’ve been making a set for her?” Holly continued. I nodded. “Or at least started to. I’m actually working on a set for her, Hiccup, and Astrid so far, but yes. I’ve been also thinking about making one for Camicazi too, since I will also be seeing her before the month is out. The only problem is finding enough scales, and the right kind, to work with.”

* * *

I was right too. Dragons don’t shed scales terribly often, as such a complex structure takes a lot to grow, and with only the one Night Fury around constantly (me in my Fury form doesn’t count, since I never ended up losing more than a scale or two every couple months), the best scales were scarce. By the time Cami and the rest of the Bog Burglars showed up, our little team on Berk had gotten a lot better at our fighting skills, but almost nowhere with the scale armor.

Cami actually ended up showing up on the day I finally managed to convince Ember to come to my house (turns out the portal itself is what freaked her out, but once she went through safely the first time, she calmed down a lot over the issue. It was also the day my whole family was gone due to one of Holly’s weekend outings, so there were no other issues of concern), and it took the young warrior forever to finally track Hiccup, Astrid and I down.

“Down! Now spin, block, bring your sword up. Good! Now block, parry, thrust, slash!” “Okay, okay, I get it! You don’t have to tell me every single move! Besides, the best way to learn is through trial and error!” Ember yelled at me as we squared off on the back deck. I grinned and shrugged in reply as I brought my sword to my side.

“Very well, then. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you!” I spun and lashed out in a fast arc with my own blunted practice sword, bringing it just down past her outstretched arm and around to the side of her neck. Before she could properly react, I brought the dull blade in a rocking motion across the side and front of her neck, ending with my arm across her chest and my sword at her throat. “I win.”

I let up and stepped back, while Ember slumped to the deck in exhaustion and defeat. “Oh, well, I’m better with a bow and arrow anyway, or a spear. Why can’t I just deal with those?” she complained. I sheathed the sword in my hand and took a seat on one of the benches at the end of the deck. “Because no matter how fast you are at reloading, sooner or later your enemy will end up at close range,” I explained. “And it’s really hard to accurately hit a guy who’s within arm’s length of you, and kill him, before he does the same to you. That’s why you need to learn how to fight with handheld blades.”

Ember groaned again and looked at the blunt sword in her hand. “Then what’s your explanation for Hiccup?” I shrugged. “Well, for one his bow doesn’t need to be reloaded and it’s also capable of taking out a dozen targets at once. Second, he’s got a dragon famous for being the most agile and, in terms of fire, most powerful in the world, and one that doesn’t miss easily. Third, for all his fame for clumsiness and bad luck he’s managed to have only two real close brushes with death, both unrelated to hand-to-hand combat, and still managed to pull through.”

“You should be glad he’s at the cove right now instead of here to hear you,” Ember quipped. I turned and looked her straight in the eye. “Well, that aside, Hiccup is also getting training from Astrid and Stoick on top of the time he’s spent with her and me over the past year or two. That’s one reason why he’s not here working with us right at this moment too, as he’s also still learning the tricks of the trade when it comes to swords and knives.”

“Until he gets kidnapped by sneaky, crazy, short little blonde princesses,” a loud, somewhat nasally and recognizable voice echoed across the yard. Ember and I both jumped in surprise and whipped around to face the portal, me extending a Nadder’s barbed tail instinctively and just in case. However, Hiccup was not in as much danger as I had first expected, so I sighed and started laughing as I took in the sight before us and retracted the appendage.

Hiccup was tied up from head to toe, and was being somewhat unceremoniously carried like a sack of flour on none other than Camicazi’s shoulders. At seeing the look starting to surface underneath my mirth, the young heir gave me a defiant one of her own. “Hey, he refused to tell me where you were, so I took care of the roadblock,” she explained defensively. She walked over to Ember and I and dropped her “cargo,” cutting the ropes at the same time.

“So Toothless didn’t have any issues with your tying up and carrying off his rider?” I asked still somewhat amusedly. Cami grinned. “Oh, he helped. Hey Astrid,” she greeted as the other blonde warrior stepped out of my house. Then, her attention focused on Ember, and she put on a suspicious expression.

“So who’s this? The new flame girl I heard my mom and Stoick talking about earlier?” Ember crossed her arms as her hair began glowing faintly. “Something wrong with that?” she returned measuredly. Cami shrugged almost tauntingly. “Maybe, depends. Were you the one who made me drag myself and my tribe all the way over to Berk to help with some war against a crazy witch queen?” A moment of tense silence passed before Ember gave a terse nod, her hands beginning to glow as well now.

Camicazi then grinned and extended her hand in friendly greeting. “Well congratulations then! Not often I manage to find someone capable of causing as much chaos as me, Hiccup and Hawken notwithstanding.” At this, Ember lost her glow and donned a look of pure confusion instead.

I chuckled and put a hand on her shoulder. “Ember, I’d like you to officially meet Camicazi,” I began, “one of the greatest masterminds there is when it comes to getting under people’s skin.” Cami made an exaggerated bow. “And always in the thick of all forms of mischief and mockery. Cami the Stealthy makes your acquaintance.”

Ember finally grinned and took Cami’s still outstretched hand. “Very well then, I guess I’ll have to get used to another one of the motley crew Hawken and Hiccup call friends here,” she replied, smiling. “I am Ember.” They shook hands properly, before Cami turned to me.

“Anyway, we got the message from Stoick about the upcoming fight, but there wasn’t too much detail. How bad is it?” I sighed and looked around, before motioning for them to follow me through the portal. Once on the other side, I motioned to sit down.

“Ember is hunted by an ancient queen hell-bent on basically destroying the world,” I said flatly. There was a moment of awkward silence as Cami stared almost blankly at me.

“So,” she finally said, “pretty bad then, huh?” We all nodded. “Her name is Jezebel,” Ember explained. “She wants to end anything and everything that has even a remote tie to my homeland, Israel, and that includes me and, quite possibly now, Hawken.”

Cami looked at me again. “So that’s why us and the Meatheads got the ‘invitation’ you guys sent. At least it’s going to be an interesting couple of months.”

At this point Toothless and Stormfly emerged from the cove nearby. I nodded to both of them, and faced Cami again. “We called you guys here because we trust you the most,” I said. “Plus, and don’t take this too much to your head, but you, specifically, are one of the best fighters I know, and we’re going to need the best of the best. For probably the month we have left, too, we need the best training we can possibly get as well. Jezebel has been around for I don’t know how long, so we’ll need everything we can get to bring her down.”

Cami looked at Stormfly, who simply nodded with a slight sigh. “So, I guess then that this would be a really bad time to let you know that Stoick sent me out here for a reason too,” she said. “He wants all of you, now, to discuss what to do with the Berserkers that are visiting in three days to discuss their treaty.”

Hiccup’s groan could be heard across the island, and the glower I put on could have fried anything in my line of sight.


	13. To Pacify a Nutcase

Late January, almost heading into February: it never was my favorite time of year, and worse still that I had to worry about midterms coming up on top of everything else to be dealt with in Berk. What with a possible life-threatening crisis on its way, a whole tribe of trigger-happy visiting psychopaths showing up at the same time put me well over the edge.

We landed in front of the Great Hall, and I strode forward and shoved the double doors open before my arms were even fully human again.

“Stoick!” I yelled, garnering the attention of everyone in the hall for a moment as my voice echoed off the walls. Stoick turned immediately to face me. “Well, good te see she passed my message along,” he said, nodding behind me at Cami. “We need te discuss plans for moving”- “Tell me Dagur isn’t actually the chief of the Berserker tribe already,” I interrupted, surprising everyone there.

Stoick spluttered for a moment. “I…well… how did you, I mean where did you….who told you Dagur was the chief? We haven’t even seen them in nearly three years!” “I know things, remember?” I growled. “Things that I probably really shouldn’t know.”

Stoick sighed. “Well, yes, Dagur became chief, succeeding his father Oswald, though I take it you already knew that too.” I nodded. “Yes, anyway, we had some run-ins with him after he discovered the thing about the dragons, but after a spectacular incident not long before you showed up he’s left us well enough alone. Only a couple days ago we got a message sayin’ he’s on his way here te resettle the treaty we had before.” He gestured to Toothless, Thorn, and Stormfly behind me and the other teens. “We want to try and keep things calmer, since the Berserkers still haven’t adopted friendly relations with the dragons yet, and so I decided that we need te try and get them out of”- “No, we don’t.”

Whatever side conversations had been going on cut off as a stunned silence filled the room, everyone turning to stare at me, even Cami included. I had never so directly disagreed with Stoick before on such a matter, so even he looked taken aback. I rubbed my forehead in exasperation, before spreading out a pair of Night Fury wings. “Look, we all know what I am,” I began, “and what I can do. And we know the dragons are going to be citizens here as much as any human is from here on out. Our corner of the world knows about us and most of the rest of the world is apparently getting hints too, so not only do I think it’s time to quit trying to hide the dragons just so things go smoothly, but I am _sick_ and _tired_ of hiding things everyone is going to know at some point anyway!!”

The crowd cringed at my rant and even more as my voice rose near the end. Even Stoick took a step back as my irritation finally boiled over, irises turning black. I drew a sword then.

“If Dagur is going to have a problem with the dragons being around,” I growled, my low voice dripping finality and my hand aiming the sword at one of the spare shields on the wall nearby, “then turn him to deal with me. I can bring down an entire fleet of drekkar on my own; one crazed teenage chief shouldn’t be a problem.”

I threw the sword as a final statement, the blade whistling through the air before it sank point first into the shield.

* * *

Only a couple of days later, the Berserkers arrived. I returned to Berk in the evening after school, at about the time they did, but this time instead of wearing my usual attire, I decided I wanted to make an immediate impression: dressed in all black with one of my coats modified into a long open jacket, and all four of my personal swords crisscrossing my back. I flew silently to the walkway at the top of the cliffs leading to the docks, before sauntering casually down to stand next to Hiccup and Toothless with Stoick. Bertha and Cami stood with Ember on the other side of Stoick, and Astrid leaned against a post with her axe at the ready next to Hiccup.

After a couple of minutes, the first of the longships docked, and a plank was laid between the vessel and the docks before us. A slim, boyish figure appeared and walked down the ramp, arms swinging in a cocky manner and a disturbing grin befitting the figure’s title decorated his expression.

Stoick stepped forward, crossed arms unfolding to extend a handshake out of formality. “Chief Dagur, I extend welcome to Berk,” he said tightly. Dagur nodded tersely, but did not take the extended hand. “Hello Stoick. I am here to discuss the reinstatement of our former treaty, as well as your dealing with the dragons. We both know that you’ve had them around for a few years now, refusing to kill them as is tradition, but I found it well under authority that you have been amassing an army.” He gestured up to the tops of the cliffs, where I could see the other teens sitting atop their dragons, along with numerous reptilian village residents.

“As far as I can tell, those rumors are true,” Dagur continued, “which I perceive to be a threat to all the other tribes, and a violation of many of the old laws.” He pulled out one of his swords and looked it over, checking the sharpness of the blade. “For the good of the archipelago, you should desist such activities, or I will take it as an act of war, and my army,” he gestured with the sword out to the multitude of ships in the harbor beyond, “shall attack with all the ferocity we can muster!”

Stoick took a step forward and held up his hands placatingly. “Look, Dagur, you and I both know we were never on the friendliest of terms, regardless what ground I stood on with your father, but I no longer make the choice of whether or not the dragons live here with us,” he explained. “That decision was made years ago, and they’ve proven themselves to be villagers, residents, just as much as any of us Vikings. They come and go as they please, if they please.”

Dagur burst out laughing, that irritating, choking sound I’d gotten used to from the TV series. He slid his sword back in place, but kept his hand upon the handle of the knife at his side. “Villagers? Really? Stoick you must be turning as deranged as I am! The dragons are and have always been wild beasts! They raid us and destroy our homes and belongings! If you keep them, surely they can’t be much more than weapons at your disposal!”

“I have no choice but to firmly disagree,” Stoick returned. “The raids have not been an issue since the Red Death was taken down, and since then the dragons have proven to be allies, much like our sister tribe the Bog Burglars you see here with us.”

“Allies can be made to fight for you,” Dagur hissed. “Only by their consent, according to law,” Stoick countered again. I could see our chief was losing his patience, so I sent him a telling look. He nodded, and signaled to Camicazi, who gave a sharp whistle.

Dagur turned to look at the heiress. “Well, if it isn’t the resident Berserker of the Bog Burglars,” he sneered. “So much a better fit in my tribe I think, how sad you’re the heir.” A light went on in his eyes, and he gestured to her, as the first of his men stepped onto the docks to support their chief. “I think I also remember you from….”

Dagur trailed off as Camicazi’s whistle gained a response. Stormfly sailed down from the walkway above and calmly landed in front of him, scales blushing red. Dagur drew his sword again and prepared to swing on impulse, but the response he got to the move froze him in place.

“Strike me and you not only ensure war, but your own demise,” the Mood Dragon growled, scales darkening further. Dagur sputtered for a moment, before stammering, “W-what kind of trickery is this? Stoick?!” Stormfly snorted and brought her snout level with the young man’s face. “My species can speak as well as yours, it’s not a trick. And I speak for all the dragons when we say we mean no harm to anyone unless they attack first. I stand also with my tribe in being a friend and ally to the Hairy Hooligan tribe.”

Dagur shook his head. “This has to be a trick, somehow. Dragons don’t speak!” “It’s not,” Cami replied, sidling up to her dragon. “Like she said, Stormfly can speak common tongue. At the very least it should prove to someone even as hard-headed as you that they’re not mindless.” “And if it doesn’t, well, you already know about Toothless,” Hiccup spoke up, joining Cami as the mentioned Night Fury walked beside him. “So-called the offspring of Lightning and Death, yet he stays at my hand, and we defend each other.”

Dagur’s eyes widened at the outspoken actions of the two heirs. “You both tread dangerous lines, you know that?” he snapped. “Only dangerous if you decide to attack, much like Stormfly said,” Hiccup countered.

Dagur stayed silent for a moment, before frowning and turning to face Stoick again. “Stoick!” he called. “None of this is upheld by our former treaty that we _both_ signed, and it most certainly goes against the Viking code of conduct as I said earlier! How do you explain yourself?” “The code is far outdated and born of clouded minds,” Stoick answered. “Our forefathers didn’t know the truth of things, as they never encountered the queen dragon on Dragon Island, and so they acted on falsehoods and half-baked ideas.”

“It still doesn’t negate the fact that this would be a violation of our treaty,” Dagur growled again. “Need I remind you that you were the one who originally broke that treaty by attacking my son and his friends two and a half years ago?” Stoick asked. “It is still treason, and that alone is nearly an instantaneous call for”-

“Don’t say it!” Stoick warned. Dagur grinned wickedly. “Oh? And why not, afraid I’ll actually get the chance to prove how powerful my armada is, that I could take you and the Burglars together?”

“No, Dagur, he’s really protecting you,” Hiccup spoke up again, drawing the other chief’s attention. “My father is more concerned about what _he_ might do if you declare war on us.” As he spoke, he jerked his thumb back, drawing for the first time our visitor’s attention to where I leaned casually, but angrily, against a dock post.

Silence fell as Dagur glanced between Hiccup, Stoick and I, as if waiting for the admittance of a joke. Then he started laughing again. “W-who is he?” he guffawed, waving his sword at me dismissively. “Come now, Hiccup, the boy is no bigger than you are,” he noted, gesturing at Hiccup who slumped slightly and glared at him. “And what’s with the clothes? He looks like a circus actor!”

I managed to gather a smirk from the cringe the crowd made at the remark, but Dagur was going far enough. If we didn’t resolve this now it would blow into another war, something I would be forced to prevent if we were to stay ready for Jezebel.

“Look, Dagur, ignoring your comment about my outfit and size, your being here is a real hindrance to us right now, and if you try anything you will leave this island, limping home with ships that can barely float,” I drawled, standing up straight and coming to join Hiccup with the others, my footsteps not making a sound on the creaking wood. Nevertheless, Dagur’s grin expectedly got wider and wider with each step.

“My, such a big threat from a teensy twig,” he jeered again. “You look like you could barely heft my axe!” “One thing I have definitely learned over the years, especially hanging around Berk,” I began again, looking at my fingers as if I had barely a care in the world, “is that few things are ever as they appear. That also applies to me; would you like to keep pushing your luck?”

Dagur gave me an unimpressed deadpan look. “Oh very well then, I’ll inquire: what can you possibly do that seems to make so many people scared of making Hiccup’s _twin_ angry?” Toothless began to growl at the jab, but I held up a hand to quiet him, and locked eyes with the visiting chief.

“Due to your, shall we say, less-than-sane qualities, I am sure you will force me to show you one way or another here, but for starters let’s just wrap it up by saying I am force enough to sink every boat in your armada,” I deadpanned. My look was anything but joking, but Dagur only started laughing again, doubling over as he tried to catch his breath, and slipping a small dagger out of his belt into his palm.

“Oh, oh, that’s hilarious!” he gasped, still in spasms from laughter. “You? Take on my army! And I thought Hiccup was funny!” He sighed and shook his head, a dangerous glint in his eye. “Ah, well, if you were so powerful as to do such a thing, then I’m sure you can avoid THIS!”

As he said the last word, his hand whipped out, sending the small blade straight toward my face. “HAWKEN!!!!” the teens screamed in unison, seeing me not even try to move. Only my hand moved, whipping up, palm, out, directly in the path of the blade.

Dagur clearly wasn’t expecting me to actually prove him wrong, and his sword, still drawn, clattered noisily to the dock as he stared slack-jawed at me. Some of the weapons in the hands of his crew shortly followed thereafter. I grinned, and glanced at my hand, where the tip of the dagger barely touched my palm as it rotated slowly midair, held in place by a warped magnetic field.

“Honestly Dagur, throwing weapons of your namesake at the ally of the tribe you’re visiting isn’t a very smart idea,” I said nonchalantly, before putting on a grin of my own and electrifying the small weapon. The wooden hilt burst into flames, and the blade melted, dropping to the deck and sizzling against the wet wood. I kept the flow of electricity up as I advanced toward the young chief, sparks jumping between my fingers and running up my arms.

As he backed up toward the far end of the dock, I let my eyes morph to match the Shadow Dragon’s, ignoring the teens snickering behind me when he nearly fell off the edge. Nowhere to go, he stood still as I walked up to him, and whispered, “You have the Skrill as your tribe’s symbol. Let me show you the powers of its relatives.”

Leaving him to gather his wits, I leapt upward, a pair of Night Fury wings snapping out behind me and lifting me high, the rest of my form morphing after as I glided out over to an open portion of the bay, increasing size until I was a Night Fury the size of a Shadow Lord. I glanced down at the placid water below me, and fired a bolt, trailing it with lightning in a constant stream until it hit the water, the explosion sending a shockwave crashing back into the docks.

I had told Stoick I was going to make sure Dagur got the whole idea, so as the electric stream flowed from my mouth, I laced it with a different power, the breath of the Frost Dragon. The bolt froze in place all the way down to the dancing water’s surface, and the tendrils racing out into the fluid froze as well, their spidery shapes rising above the surface and glowing inside as the ocean itself turned to a sheet of ice, racing across the bay.

I stopped once the ice covered half the open harbor, and glanced back at the dock. Hiccup and Cami were clearly smirking, as Dagur looked like he was going weak at the knees. Carefully, I settled myself on the surface of the crystalline crust I had formed, sparks of electricity still dancing in the ice, and demorphed save the wings and pulled out one of my swords, energizing it in a different manner and driving it into the ice.

A thunderous crack echoed off the cliffs as the harbor cracked, one sheet becoming hundreds of upturned, chaotic pieces, and I lifted off again as my foothold disappeared, casually gliding back to the docks. Landing in front of Dagur, I relinquished my wings as well, putting the sword away and leaning against Toothless behind me, expression mirroring that which he’d first seen me with.

“So, Dagur, any questions you have for me now?” I asked lightly, smiling as if I had not a care in the world. “Or, do you want your ships to look like that instead?”

His response didn’t come in words, but instead as an undignified slumping to the dock, out cold, eliciting a bout of boisterous laughter from the twins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, while overall I think my writing was getting better in this book, there are still a few choppy spots. This was probably one of them. Oh well. At least we get to meet Dagur; turned out, this wouldn't be the last time either, but more on him another time.


	14. The Final Stretch

“Don’t you think that was a little over the top?” Ember asked as we slipped through the double doors of the Great Hall. I glanced over toward the far end of the fireplace, where a now much more passive Dagur the Deranged was quietly hashing out a new treaty with Stoick. When he spotted us coming in through the doors, he immediately tried to make himself look smaller and focused intently on the parchments strewn in front of him. I chuckled and shook my head. “No, no, I think it was just about right.”

We headed over to the kitchen area and grabbed some food from the plates set out, and settled down at a nearby table. Shortly after the rest of our motley crew gathered around the same table, and I glanced over each of them: Ember, Hiccup, Camicazi, Astrid, Snotlout, Ruff and Tuff, Fishlegs, and not least Toothless, who had joined us as always and was lying on the floor, eyes wide in hopes that he could snag something from the table, like a dropped chicken leg. I smirked and nodded, before clasping my hands on the table in front of me.

“Alright friends, I’d say we’ve gotten pretty fair over the past month or two in our training, what with the hand-to-hand practice and other techniques. Unfortunately I’m also sure any day now we’ll be hearing from Queen Insanity. So, every evening, I expect everyone to be at the cove for training, no matter the weather, since we could be forced to fight in anything.” To emphasize my point, I jerked my thumb at the snow blowing in through the doors as Sigrid walked in, from the new storm that had settled over the island.

“Also,” I continued, “on the weekends we can try to meet at my house during the day, and if not then we’ll be in the cove again.” I glanced at Hiccup. “Have you managed to collect any more scales recently?” He smiled and nodded. “Actually yeah, a few bucketfuls. Mostly Nadder and Nightmare since they’re always around, but I have almost a bucket’s worth of Night Fury scales too. Toothless seems to be going through a bit of a phase.”

I glanced down at said dragon, who just shrugged. <Just a lot of old scales, nothing to worry about,> he reassured. I nodded. “Well, then, good. We need to get working on the scale armor as quickly as we can, a set for everyone in the gang at minimum if we can.”

“Armor?” Tuffnut queried. I nodded. “Protection from both fire and blunt instruments,” I explained. “But, it’s slow going, so Hiccup and Ember, you’ll have to try and work on them while I’m gone, since we’re the only ones who can.” At this point I noticed the devious expression crawling its way onto Tuff’s face, as he finally processed what I’d said. “And Tuff? We will give them out only when it’s time for battle, and we will store them away at all other times.”

The grin immediately flipped. “Aww, come on, that takes all the fun out of it!” he complained. “It’s not meant to be fun, it’s meant to keep you from dying,” Astrid deadpanned, throwing a bare chicken bone at him.

I sighed and shook my head, before looking toward Snotlout and Fishlegs. “And you two: see if you can find time to train extra with Astrid. You’ll need every bit of it.” I saw the glare the female teen I’d mentioned was now giving me, but I brushed it off, and looked back at the twins. “And you two, get this in your heads now: you need to learn how to deal with each other without trying to kill each other every five minutes, especially since you’re both on the same dragon.”

“But fighting is what we’re good at,” Ruff whined. Tuff nodded in agreement. “Yeah, gotta have someone to beat up.” “So focus it on the enemy when they get here,” I deadpanned.

There was silence for a moment, before Hiccup asked, “So does everyone understand what they need to do?” A variety of agreements were voiced, and he and I nodded. “Alright then,” I began, “Hiccup, you know what to do, and I need to get going unfortunately. I’ll see you guys tomorrow evening.” I stood up and walked toward the Great Hall’s doorway, glancing at Dagur one last time and grinning before morphing Shadow, dissolving into the walls and racing home, leaving the bewildered chief with one more surprise.

* * *

Thousands of miles away, on the clear blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea, a massive, ornate ship sailed westward. Heading toward it from its destination, breaking the water spectacularly in its haste, was the young sea serpent. He swam up next to the ship and raised his head up just above the deck, facing the figure standing on the planks.

“My apologies, my queen, we have failed in our mission,” the serpent said, voice trembling in fear of the reaction. The woman on the ship did not even turn to acknowledge the words, speaking as she faced out to the ocean.

“And where are the other two?” “Dead, my mistress. Ur and the new guardian managed to overtake them with the help of the village she reached, and I only barely escaped to tell you the news with my hlkkkk-!!”

The serpent was cut off as the woman turned finally, her outstretched hand squeezing closed as the serpent’s throat constricted to match. “You are telling me that three century-old sea serpents that were given power to bend the laws of physics, who were embellished with the abilities of demons themselves, couldn’t manage to kill off a single girl with no more than fiery skin and a pathetic dragon boy?!” she screeched. The serpent struggled futilely as the woman pulled him near to her.

In a much lower, more menacing voice, she hissed, “You have greatly disappointed me, and you will be properly punished later. However, we have much work to do now, and you still have a job.” Her hand flicked, and the force that followed it threw the sea serpent back unceremoniously, making him skid across the ocean’s surface for a short distance.

“Signal my army!” the woman snapped, turning again to face the prow of her ship. “I have wasted too much time already chasing these pests of ‘purity’, and it is beyond time to end this.” She glanced down, and rubbed her finger across the surface of her pendant, an emerald amulet set within her necklace.

“My lord asked for dominion of this world long ago, and it has been a hard fight getting this far. It is far past time to give it to him.” She turned to the serpent, who was floating there unblinkingly. “Well, what are you waiting around for?!” she screamed again. “Bring everyone, and send a messenger to the ally we made in the north. We’ll need him for his knowledge of the terrain and of the other Viking tribes.”

The serpent nodded, turning to head east behind the ship again. “Yes, Queen Jezebel,” he said quietly. “It will be as you wish.”

Jezebel nodded and fingered the amulet again, staring forward across the Mediterranean to the west. Only minutes later, the patch of sky behind her began to darken, the sound of beating wings filling the air. Ships appeared, stretching across the sea and bearing dangerous cargo. This was to be war, Jezebel knew, and one way or another, she was going to finally end the only other ones who still jeopardized her plans.


	15. Devil's Awakening

As February prepared to draw to a close, winter had taken Berk with both hands, and was holding tight. An average of three feet of snow sat upon the ground, the only clear places (like the cove) being kept so thanks to the dragons. Things were warmer usually back home, but I was still stuck being bogged down by school work. My midterm tests were mostly over, thank goodness, and while college work never seems to lighten up, somehow it just managed to get done faster, which was a very, very good thing, as life had gotten harder in other areas.

I had been training with the teens for a minimum of 2 hours a day, and not only had Thuggory and the Meatheads finally shown up, but the teens I was accustomed to hanging around with were truly starting to get formidable in our sparring, made no less so by the fact that we no longer used practice weapons.

SCHEEEWWWW!! “Whoa, Astrid, watch the wings will you!” “I thought we were trying to take you down!” “Yes, however I’d like to try and get through this without irreparable damage; we will have an actual war coming soon!” Astrid snorted. “And? You can heal.” “…..point taken, but still….” SCHWINNGGG!!

The blades at the end of my tail caught Hiccup’s blade as he brought it underhand and parried it away, while simultaneously my own sword blocked a swing from Astrid’s axe. She had her sword out in her other hand as well, though, and as I spun away from the medieval weapon in her right hand, she swung the thin blade in sideways, forcing me to literally flip backward to avoid getting caught across my right wing.

Hiccup was still in the fight, however, and as Astrid kept me busy, he sheathed his sword and drew Framherja in one swift movement. Taking aim as I stood up from my backflip, he fired in a thunderclap blast, point blank at my head.

The bolt hit, and with practiced ease I redirected the energy and fired it into the lake in the cove. Then, I stepped back and sheathed my own sword, a smile stretching across my face. “Well, congratulations you two! Against anyone else that feint would have taken their head off, and you would have won.” “And don’t forget we’ll have the dragons with us as well, so pulling off tactics like that will be easier with cover fire,” Hiccup mused. “That’s got to count for something as well.”

“Unfortunately, don’t forget Jezebel has her possessed dragons as well,” Ember pointed out from where she sat nonchalantly next to the fire we’d built. Hiccup sighed. “So that’s no real advantage,” he muttered. He glanced around the cove, and his eyes landed on Toothless, who was lounging not far from where Ember sat. “But, we do have our armor, so dragons can’t burn us as well. We’re better defended, hopefully.” I nodded. “So long as they don’t catch you on an exposed part.”

A slight sting caused me to look down at my hand, where Astrid had managed to get in a lucky cut, and I healed over the wound before looking around at the gang. “Well, in any case, you two are at least adequate for battle. Ruff, Tuff, you’re up next!”

The twins leapt to their feet from the rocks they’d claimed for the afternoon, and charged me with their double-bladed spears. I smirked, thinking this was going to be incredibly easy if they just went for me head on. However, a second before they were within reach they both split off and went opposite directions, swinging their weapons in at me from different angles. I pivoted and flashed my swords, catching each spearhead and deflecting them outward. Ruff and Tuff used the momentum of my parries to spin the other end of their weapons inward, the bottom blades aiming for my now mostly exposed sides. To avoid, I leapt upward, bringing my blades in and downward, catching the middle of the spears with the flats of my blades and shoving down and out, forcing the pair to stumble back, out of balance, before they regained their footing. I grinned and crossed my swords in front of me, waiting for them to come in again.

* * *

I went through the whole gang one by one, rather easily fending off Snotlout and Fishlegs, which was a little concerning. However it’s a little harder to defend yourself from a sword if your weapon of choice is a blunt object, like Snotlout’s hammer or Fishlegs’ mace. In surprise attacks, they’d be alright however. Thuggory, who had only just recently joined us of course, was a bit rusty but held his own. Ember and Cami on the other hand lasted just about as long against me as Astrid and Hiccup had, so I decided for the most part that we were ready. Not that anyone stopped practicing, especially Snotlout; he still had it in his head he would someday manage to get at least one good hit in on me.

We flew back toward the village after we were done, and Hiccup and I immediately headed straight for the forge, Ember tagging along with us. After many, many attempts and lots of time to practice, we’d nearly completed the preliminary armor sets that the gang needed, each one fitting at least the dragon belonging to the wearer: Snotlout had Nightmare armor that could burn with Fireworm, _without_ setting him on fire, as did Thuggory (though his color was a bit off), Fishlegs’ Gronckle armor was as hard as rock, Astrid had a colorful outfit adorned with sharp ridges to go along with the rest of her outfit and her dragon, and the twins had armor that, fittingly enough, was blunt-force resistant and shock absorbing, good for the explosions Barfbelch was well known for making (not that they cared about the safety part though; what’s an explosion to a couple of teens who threw each other against boulders for fun?). Camicazi’s armor was very lightweight, and had managed to retain the color changing aspect of Stormfly’s scales, though they tended to change with Cami’s moods rather than her ride’s now. In any case it would be distracting, just how she liked her fights.

Because of how long we’d been working with the scales from Toothless, both Hiccup and Ember wore armor of pitch black color, pliable and extremely flame retardant but also hard to puncture. And Hiccup, being the inventive type he is, had managed to incorporate the extra Night Fury scales into the others’ armor to help strengthen those that were of a softer form or provide some flexibility to ones like what Fishlegs wore.

We were still working out the bugs for the set that Thuggory was to wear, including incorporating more of Silverwings’ scales, when the loud sound of beating wings approached the forge window. <Hawken! Toothless! They’re coming!>

Out of seemingly thin air, Spitfire appeared to materialize, eyes wide and frantic. “What’s going on?” I asked, dropping the scales in my hand into their designated holding basket and walking over to the window. The others in the forge followed me.

<They’re coming, just over the horizon now,> Spitfire explained, beginning to blend back with the ground out of nervousness. <Dozens of huge ships, lots of weird dragons like I’ve never seen before, and these other flying, uh, machines.> He glanced out to the ocean. <Oh, and the sea serpent was there too. I spotted them while patrolling.> The Changewing looked up at me, cringing slightly as he apparently expected me to explode at the bad news.

I only sighed, pressing a hand to my forehead and bracing the other against the shelf below the window. Then, I turned around to face Hiccup and Ember; Toothless of course understood what Spitfire had said, and his eyes were already wide in concerned anticipation.

“Guys, Spitfire just informed me that Jezebel and her army are almost here,” I explained. “What?!” Hiccup exclaimed. “No, no, that’s not good. We still need another day or two to finish Thuggory’s suit!” He looked down at the arm brace he held, the one we’d only just completed, fingering the clasp that held it on.

“Well, then we need to get it done as fast as we can,” I returned, strapping on the weapons I happened to have with me and walking out the forge’s front door. “I need to go find Stoick, Bertha and Mogadon, and let them know about this. We need to start getting our defenses up pronto.”

I morphed Night Fury and took off across the houses in the village, and skimming along the roads, searching for the three chiefs. I ducked into the Great Hall, but they weren’t there, nor were they up near the livestock pens. Finally, I found them down at the docks, helping bring in a large catch.

“Stoick!” I yelled out, flaring my wings to land and vaguely noticing that Spitfire had followed me. Stoick turned, as did Bertha, as I touched down and morphed back. “Spitfire just informed me that Jezebel and her army are on their way, two, maybe three days out if we’re lucky. Less if she decides to send in her dragons first.” Stoick’s eyes widened, before they hardened and he nodded, pointing back up toward the village. “Tell Gothi to gather the children and elders and have them head for the mountain caves. She will know where to go. I’ll start putting up defenses down here with the help of our allies here.” I nodded and took off again, Spitfire once more right behind me.

As I landed, I turned to face Spitfire before I went to knock on Gothi’s door. “I have a very important job for you,” I told the Changewing. “Go with Gothi and the children, and if anyone happens to find them you will be there to protect them.”

<But I want to stay and help fight,> the young dragon whined. I knelt down in front of him, looking straight in his eyes with as much seriousness as I could. “No reason to fight if we come back to find no one left to protect,” I said quietly. “Do you understand that?” Spitfire glanced at the ground, before nodding. <Alright, I’ll go with them,> he agreed. I smiled and stood up, knocking on the village elder’s door. She opened it almost immediately afterward, looking up at me with a questioning expression.

“Stoick sent me to tell you to gather the children and the elders in the village,” I said. “Take them to the shelter caves in the mountains. Jezebel is nearly here.” Gothi nodded, turning and heading back into her house to gather together a few essentials, before walking back out and closing her door, waving at me to move out of the way. I smirked at her forwardness before turning and flying off to the forge, though not before I made sure Spitfire followed the old woman and stayed with her.

Naturally Hiccup and Ember were still hard at work, and Toothless was heating up the last pile of Silverwings’ scales, for the face mask on Thuggory’s suit. As I landed outside, they all stopped and turned to me.

“What’s the news?” Ember queried. “Stoick and Bertha are setting up perimeter defenses and Gothi is taking those unable to fight up into the mountains,” I reported. “Mogadon I believe is going to be helping Bertha, and alerting the villagers. Oh, and Spitfire is going with Gothi to protect that group.”

“And as for us?” Hiccup asked. I nodded grimly. “We’d probably better have all our armor on when Jezebel reaches our shores. I don’t know why, but I have a bad feeling that possessed dragons and her personal army aren’t the only things Jezebel has up her sleeve.”

“That feeling is called common sense,” Ember retorted. “And don’t forget she’s got that last seafaring worm with her too.” I nodded. “No, I don’t think I’ll be forgetting him.”

As Hiccup began molding the scales into form and pounding the substance flat for Thuggory, the scales giving off silvery flashes each time he struck them, I looked out the forge, to the south. There wasn’t any visual of Jezebel and her lackeys yet, but the cold Arctic wind sweeping down from the north and blowing over the island still managed to bring a more than ominous chill to my spine.

Honestly, I was glad that in my paranoia I had gotten all my school work done early, as for the next few days I was going to be very, very busy, and would probably miss at least a day or two.

If I managed to return to school at all after all this, that is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time for a little more action...and a real step into a new realm of conflict for our characters here.


	16. Cataclysm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let the games begin...

The combined forces of three of the strongest Viking tribes and all the power we wielded could not have prepared any one of us for the sight Jezebel brought in her wake. Nearly 70 ships, each ornately decorated with violent patterns and massive in size, stretched across the sea. Every deck was filled with armored soldiers and unrecognizable reptilian shapes, and what looked from a distance like amorphous lumps of shining metal. The last detail was what gave me the worst thoughts; too many stories I had read, with other people’s ideas and imaginations run wild with Hiccup’s world, and too many of them had already had a breath of life in this world.

I stood on the high bluff at the edge of the harbor, shoulder to should with the rest of our gang and their dragons, two of my swords drawn just like everyone else. The foreign vessels slowed to a halt offshore, just outside the harbor, and just ahead of the lead ship the head of that cursed sea serpent rose out of the water, leaning toward the deck. A figure left the ship and stood upon the serpent’s head, and the creature began to head in our direction. Once he had reached the center of our harbor, he stopped, and the figure stepped into clear view at the tip of his snout.

Ember leaned toward me and whispered nervously, “That’s Jezebel.” “Yeah, like we all couldn’t figure that out,” I whispered back.

Dressed in regal, flowing clothes and her black hair in a tight braid down her back, Jezebel stood tall and imposing, with various weapons strapped across her body and an almost glowing emerald amulet shining from the necklace that hung upon her front. As if the appearance wasn’t enough, the woman practically oozed confidence, and you could taste the impending danger that radiated from her. A shiver ran down my spine and I grabbed the hilt of a third sword with my tail.

“People of Berk, and your allies!” Jezebel suddenly spoke out, loud and crystal clear and commanding every eye that wasn’t on her already (as if standing on the nose of a sea serpent wasn’t enough). “You have among your ranks a suite of criminals and liars! Some have broken the laws of their countries, and others use dark powers to brainwash your innocent people to hide their real intent. They have stolen precious artifacts from me and others in my kingdom, and I bring the power you see here in order to obtain these important items. You all know of whom I speak, and if they are immediately turned over to me so they can be properly reprimanded, I will have no use for force and will leave your village and your people in peace. If not, then I will”-

“Ah, shut yer trap already will ye?” The entire scene tensed at the outburst, all eyes falling on Gobber as he hobbled up toward the top of the docks and waved at the sorceress with his hammer. Jezebel quieted, though seemingly more out of surprise than actual compliance.

“O’ course I know who yer referring te,” Gobber went on, “and I sure wouldnae hand them off te the likes of you.” “You are treading dangerous waters, Viking,” Jezebel warned, eyes narrowing as she stared down he burly opponent.

Gobber, being Gobber, only snorted. “Eh, it’s an occupational hazard, what else is new?” he retorted. “I’ve been here long enough te see through this mockery you show us. Those ‘criminals,’ as ye call ‘em, have nae been wrong in their judgement since I’ve met them, not even once. Meanwhile yer _pet_ there”- he gestured to the sea serpent, who snarled in response and began to advance, before being held back by the foreign queen, “-and ‘is buddies darn near destroyed our village once already trying te eat one young, harmless girl.”

There was silence for a moment, before Stoick went to stand next to his right-hand man, glaring at Jezebel as well. “My friend here speaks the truth,” he announced, standing his ground. “You I perceive as a far greater threat to us than any of the people you seem to be after. As chief of this village and ally of your quarries, I demand that you leave our shores at once, or prepare to face our wrath.”

Laughter was their only response, Jezebel almost tearing up at the show of defiance. “Oh, and what do I have to fear?” she guffawed. “A few hundred burly warriors with axes and some flying lizards with anger management problems?” A sigh escaped her lips, before a grin spread across them. “Actually, I’m rather happy you feel this way. Otherwise I would have come all the way out here for a mere nothing.”

Jezebel stepped forward, and the serpent lowered his head, so that the sorceress was more on a face level with Stoick and Gobber, who had come to gather a crowd of supporters behind them. Jezebel then drew a long, curving blade, and raised it high into the air. At that signal, the ships behind her came alive with action, and she sneered at her audience. “A foolish mistake you made. You’ll be lucky to come through this as my slaves by the time this day ends.” Then she whipped her hand out toward the docks.

The water below ripped apart, a massive wave racing toward the wooden structures. “Get out of the way!” Stoick bellowed, diving to the side as the others around him followed suit. The energized water hit the planks shortly after, and the docks and walkways exploded into splinters.

“I’ll take that as our signal,” I growled, leaping off the cliff I stood on and spreading a pair of transparent wings, causing an illusion of my floating on my own down the cliff side and then walking out across the water. Above me, the rest of the gang and their dragons screamed out a war cry and took off, preparing to form a barrier to the island.

As smaller boats began to leave the armada and shadows of dragons bearing riders lifted off from both sides, I hovered over the water’s surface not a hundred feet from Jezebel. She looked at me, but if the sight of a young man floating effortlessly over the water disturbed her, she made no show of it.

“Ah yes, the new guardian,” she leered. “I’ve heard plenty about you these past few months. Though, I must say I had expected someone a little older to have a record like yours.” “We’re not all made the same,” I deadpanned, glaring at her. “And I’ve heard it all before; cut to the chase. You leave, or you die, your choice either way.” Jezebel shook her head and held her hand out, directing the serpent toward the shoreline. “Honestly I think not. You threaten my master’s plans, and it’s my job to remove threats.” She turned to face me directly as they reached the remains of the docks, and chuckled. “But, I will get to you at a later time. After all, you’ll be busy for quite some time now.”

I heard the scream of the arrow long before it reached me. I spun around, the sword in my left hand flashing upward into the path of the projectile. They clashed together, the arrow falling harmlessly from my blade and dropping into the water below. Looking downward, I saw the approaching line of rowboats, and a suite of archers aiming my direction. Putting my sword away, I scowled. “Very well then,” I muttered, spreading my arms wide, “if I must play this game, I’ll show everything I’ve got to offer!”

I shot upward, the wings on my back shrinking away as I took on a different form, my arms instead flaring outward and expanding to well over a hundred feet across. The rest of my body elongated as well and took on a multitude of fiery colors. I now hovered over the rowboats far below, a full-grown Typhoomerang. The archers below immediately aimed upward and fired, producing a wall of arrows. In response, I grinned and fired my own shot downward, billowing flames coursing downward in a jet and roiling across the ocean surface, before erupting back upward from the backdraft.

The screams that echoed afterward will haunt me as long as I live, but war is not a picturesque scene. I turned my mind from the sound as best as I could and diverted my attention to forming a blockade. My wings tilted and I began spinning, the massive surface area I covered creating thermal updrafts and pulling the air and flames below toward me in a blinding vortex. As the whirlwind reached me I released a bolt of energy and moved away, the flames spinning and burning on their own now as they fed off the wooden boats and even the very water below. Moving off a slight distance I fired again and brought up another vortex, as a single one wasn’t enough to close off the harbor. The two tornados of fire were, however, enough to take out any more boats trying to move inward, the updrafts catching the nearest ones and drawing them into the inferno.

Blocking the ocean route was not enough to curb the full on attack however. From up above me screams of fury both human and draconic echoed through the sky, as hideous mockeries of what were once dragons began to dive down, clashing with the dragons on our side and strafing the island itself with fire. From their backs, armed soldiers wielded bows and other weapons, and some leapt down to land on the bluffs, armed to the teeth, and the Vikings on the ground met them head on. I had my own issues however as a swarm turned to engage me. Preparing for the onslaught, I shot upward again, morphing once more to a form with both arms and wings, and unsheathed two swords, crossing them in warning as electric currents began to sizzle across my body.

* * *

As Hawken took off Hiccup and Ember both readied their bows, bracing themselves as Toothless took to the sky as well. The other teens followed, and the two of them began to shout directions for the coming battle.

“Astrid, Cami, each of you take half the others and head off the soldiers heading to the village,” Hiccup yelled. “Split up and come at them from both sides. Find their tactics, use them against them!” The others nodded and followed the two warrioresses, war cries echoing off their lips. Hiccup looked down at Toothless, who nodded in grim anticipation. “Alright bud, we take down the head of this then everything ends.”

They banked and headed for Jezebel, who was unchallenged thanks to the army that had taken Hawken’s attention. Ember fired first, her honed reflexes sending an arrow straight through the air toward the sorceress’s head.

A split second before the bladed shaft impacted, Jezebel whipped around and held out her hand, the arrow halting midair. “Honestly, Ember, after all this time you think a simple arrow will end me?” she leered, flicking her hand and sending the arrow back down the path it had come. Toothless screeched and dove to the side, just barely avoiding the projectile tearing through his right wing, as Hiccup lined up a shot and fired Framherja.

The electric bolt moved a little faster than the wood and metal one, faster than even Jezebel was expecting. She barely threw up a defensive field in time, blocking the blast, and the explosion reverberated across the island. Toothless powered up to release a shot of his own as Hiccup readied another bolt, pulling back the bowstring and watching the electric line dance across the bow, but before either could release their payloads fire and arrows came raining down from above as the enemy army came to their leader’s aid.

The trio was forced to break off and defend themselves, bolts of plasma and arrows flying outward to ward off the attack, and the men on the backs of the enemy dragons leapt off in the fray and landed below to engage the other Vikings in combat. Jezebel, meanwhile, turned again and headed toward the high hill above the main village, her sea serpent following and destroying buildings as they went. The rest of the island’s forces would be occupied for some time, giving the sorceress all the opportunity she needed to ready their outright destruction.

* * *

Astrid and Camicazi each fared no better than the others. The wave of attackers forced them to full defensive, they and the other teens forming a ring to defend in all directions. “We’re going to have to find a weak spot somewhere if we want any sort of upper hand here!” Astrid yelled. “I’m trying to find one!” Fishlegs answered back. “But I haven’t figured out any pattern! The best we can do is provide cover fire for those on the ground!”

The young woman scowled at this news, before spinning around and cutting down an attacker that had tried to come at her from above. He and the dragon both met the sharp blade of her axe, and quickly fell from the fight. Another invader’s blast of fire forced her and Thorn to dive, however, coming up behind Camicazi to fight back to back. Until an opening presented itself, they were stuck where they were.

* * *

Thunder rent the sky around me as lightning sprung from my arms, wings, and tail, striking man and beast as they attempted to fly past toward the island. Each was either stunned or killed instantly, all movement ceasing as they fell into the ocean or crashing spectacularly into the land below. I am not a killer at heart, never will be, and watching my actions result in the loss of life even of those who would gladly do the same to me felt like a cut as painful as any sword, but like so many other things that would come that day it was inevitable; were any of them allowed to live through this Jezebel would eventually win through sheer force and attrition, and then all of us would die. Fueled by that knowledge I continued, lightning crackling and exploding around me as I raked through the throngs of fliers, the blades in my hands catching the few of whom the electricity missed. I am a finite entity however, so many of the soldiers went wide around me and made it past, landing in the village and the areas surrounding. I could see most of the Vikings holding their own easily, plenty used to kill or be killed, but it wouldn’t be long before the numbers flowing off the ships would overtake those still on the ground.

I powered up again for another lightning strike, feeding off the static already in the air around me, when something incredibly metallic and shiny caught my attention. I spun around and raised my sword in preparation to take out the new threat, and yet nearly dropped it in shock.

Flying through me on a mission, driven by a power source at that time unknown was another sight I had hoped would stay only in the stories I’d read: seemingly solid metal but nearly translucent wings, and moving with a fluidity only ever seen in living creatures, was an undeniably mechanical imitation of a dragon with eyes glowing in energy. Immediately I had a bad feeling about how my own blades would hold up against it, so I sheathed them and instead snagged a sword from a careless passing soldier, frying him as I did so. Then, I shot toward the metal dragon and swerved up and around it, stabbing straight toward the middle with the stolen blade.

The weapon shattered, the jarring force I applied sending shards in every direction, but the machine seemed completely unfazed; not even the slightest marring of the surface could be seen. The faux dragon turned toward me and lashed out, the claws on its forepaw extending to razor points. In reaction I morphed and melted into pure electricity, and the claws raked through me without effect. As they passed though, I saw the metal buckle and shimmer before it melted back into shape, a possible weakness I could exploit. I materialized once more and grinned, before striking the metal monster directly with a lightning bolt.

Energy crackled across the surface of the machine, and it appeared to freeze in place and lock up as the lightning coursed through it, before basically exploding, shards of impossibly sharp metal flying in every direction as the static charge dissipated, and from the head region something vaporized in a cloud of ash. I grinned at the quick victory, before I turned to face the ships again.

The grin left my expression immediately. Lumps of the metal could be seen on nearly every ship, and all of them suddenly began shifting, morphing into the same mechanical draconic shape as the one I’d just blew up. And, despite the fact that I could take them down with relative ease, it took time to charge up again, and there were dozens all coming at the same time.

I swallowed hard and turned toward where I saw the other teens up in the air, Hiccup and company off on their own while Astrid, Cami and the others fought surrounded. They needed to know what was coming right behind us.

* * *

Stoick grabbed a new axe from in the doorway nearby, and swung, taking out two more opponents, and then swung the shield in his left hand to block a rain of arrows that came down from the soldiers above him. Nearby, Gobber wielded his own axe attachment, not-so-gracefully diving out of the way as a stream of dragon fire charred the spot he’d been standing and rolling across the ground, taking out the feet of another foot soldier before punching the poor soul’s lights out. As he got up he took up position behind Stoick, the two of them fighting back to back and in perfect tune with each other as they always had been. They could hold their own for a while, but unless the constant stream of soldiers was stemmed somehow they would eventually be overtaken by sheer numbers.

“Get the crossbows out!” Stoick yelled, looking at where Bertha fought across the plaza. She nodded and passed on the message before heading to a storehouse. Vikings all around followed the same instruction, racing into buildings (not particularly caring if the building was on fire either) and reemerging with the massive multi-shot bows Hiccup and Hawken had designed nearly a year before. The weapons were quickly set up and loaded, the people manning them taking aim and firing with great accuracy. Stoick smiled with a grim satisfaction as more of the demonic renditions of dragons above were brought down to premature and painful landings, other Vikings finishing off those who managed to survive crashing. In so many ways this reminded him of the old days, back when they were against all the dragons, and now he realized those memories burned as badly as the slash he’d received across the cheek from a lucky soldier’s swipe.

An arrow screamed past Stoick’s shoulder and embedded itself impossibly deeply into the wall of the house behind him. Stoick reached carefully over and pulled it out with surprising ease, especially considering it had gone in nearly to the fletching, and the gleaming, unblemished metal head gave him a feeling of unease. He rubbed it gently across the wood of the wall again, and his eyes widened in alarm as the blade of the head simply sliced through the grain like a hot knife through ice cream.

Stoick immediately spun around and bellowed out, “Get to cover now! The thickest protection that you can!!”

The gleaming arrows began to rain down as a new wave of soldiers arrived from the ships, followed by mechanic dragons made of the same metal as the arrows, only they bent with fluidity like living creatures. The Vikings dove behind carts and sheds, heaving blocks of wood and stone up, and tried to hide from the deadly attack. Some of the weapons found their mark, however, and protruding limbs and sides were pierced with an impossible ease as the sharper-than-steel metal screamed down. Unable to escape the attack and fight back, Stoick peeked out from under an overhang, hoping the riders above were at least having a little better luck than he.

* * *

“Hiccup look out!!” I screamed, diving toward them. Hiccup looked up, before his eyes widened and he made Toothless swerve immediately out of the way as one of the metal dragons dove after them, swiping outward to try and catch the riders. I sent a ball of plasma after it, the extreme heat shearing off the hind leg and right wing, and watching as the machine fell uselessly to the ground below.

As it fell however, the machine swerved to face upward toward me, and opened its mouth. A rain of glimmering spears shot out, and I barely raised a barrier field in time, the shards thudding against the field and falling away as well. I retracted the energy and converted it, sending a bolt down and electrifying the dragon, creating another splayed pile of slivers. Then I glided down next to Hiccup and Ember.

“Electricity and dragon fire, the metal’s too hard for anything else,” I said. “And whatever you have to do, do not let the metal hit you, as even a blunt piece will skewer you through.”

“What are they?” Hiccup asked. “Some sort of unnatural metal alloy,” I replied. “If we win this, I have a theory and I’ll get into it more.” I spun again and dove down across the village, scanning for anyone else needing immediate help or healing, and after taking care of those I spotted I streaked into the sky once more and resumed the electrical storm I had raged before.

As I tore into the new wave of more heavily armed soldiers, I, and everyone else, missed the group of men that skirted the edges of the forest and headed for the mountains, led by the ally Jezebel had enlisted.

* * *

Cami and Stormfly landed on the ground as soon as the first wave was broken, and raced to the village toward a large battalion of soldiers who were readying for an assault. Thuggory joined them shortly after, with Silverwings bringing up the rear as he combusted, a flaming wall behind the defenders. Stormfly, a deep red flowing across her scales, was the first to reach the battalion, streaming flames straight through the group and cutting their numbers dramatically.

Cami glanced at Thuggory, grinning as she cartwheeled right into the fray, landing upright and swinging both her swords out with practiced ease, the blades meeting sword, shield, and skin. A whirlwind ensued as she spun through the mass, before her swords clashed with those of a slightly more experienced opponent, who grinned and forced her backward with a twist of his hand. Cami used the momentum to spin around and thrust the sword in her right hand into another soldier, before crossing her blades and facing the experienced one.

“That all you got?” she asked. “I’ve fought barnacles that were better than you!” “Cut yer yappin’ girlie,” the soldier hissed, his blade twirling in his hand. “I’m only warming up.” “For what, to heat your mommy’s pillow tonight?” Cami mocked.

The soldier’s eye widened. “What did you say to me?” he growled, swinging his sword toward her side. Cami parried it with ease and faked a yawn, before smirking dangerously. “Oh, I think I hit a nerve,” she drawled. “You’re nothing more than a petty momma’s boy, aren’t you?”

That did it. The soldier went berserk, his sword whirling at an incredible speed as he tried to cut down the blonde warrior. Cami meanwhile signaled to Thuggory who, after he dealt with the opponent he had been against, carefully snuck around to behind the soldier Cami dueled against. The girl, for her part, kept up a good fight as the soldier whaled away at her, before she saw her ally was in position, and feigned a misstep.

The soldier took this perceived opening and spun one of Cami’s swords out of her hand, before backing her against the wall of the nearest house, pointing the tip of his blade to Cami’s chest. “Any last words, twerp?” he sneered. Cami looked up in mock terror, before she broke the façade and smiled. “One thing yes: double team,” she drawled.

The man barely registered surprise before Thuggory’s sword pierced through his back, sticking out of his chest, and he dropped to the ground then and there. Cami picked up her own fallen sword, shook Thuggory’s hand, and smiled before jumping right back into the action, following the path Stormfly had made into the village. Thuggory could only shake his head in amusement before following.

* * *

Covered by the rest of the battle, a small group of soldiers followed behind a burly, ugly man along a narrow path into the forest, headed up toward the mountains. Alvin knew already that the elders and children who, naturally hemmed by their decreased ability to defend themselves, couldn’t join in the battle were sent to be hidden inside a mountain cave while war was waged. He also knew that it would be the perfect chance to not only strike a blow against Berk and their allies and help Jezebel win this war, but also to finally get his revenge on Stoick and Hiccup. After all, there were only so many times a proven warrior could be bested by that fishbone of a boy and his dragon before he eventually cracked, and Alvin was almost to that point.

When Jezebel’s men had come to the archipelago seeking more inside help to undermine and defeat the Hooligans and their allies, the Outcast simply couldn’t resist the chance, and offered to lead the charge against the lesser defended on the island. After all, he already knew his way to the shelter cave, and such a low blow was fitting of his style.

The group skirted through the forest quickly and quietly (or at least as quietly as twenty men armed to the teeth can be) and reached the narrow path leading into the mountains themselves. Alvin turned and looked behind them, making sure his posse wouldn’t be easily visible from the village, before grinning and taking point again, walking carefully up the path and shimmying around the rock wall the path cut across as the slope became nearly vertical beneath them. The rest of the men followed suit, squeezing against the cliff face so as not to miss a step and go tumbling off.

The path was clearly marked this time around too, with fresh footprints clearly marked in what little dust collected on the windy trail. They weren’t far, and Alvin sped up, eager to get even with Hiccup and Stoick in the worst possible way he knew he could.

* * *

As an opening appeared between the waves of soldiers, I took the chance and dove down into the village, barrier field flaring above me to block the few arrows that rained down at that moment. Quickly, I located Stoick underneath the overhang of a house, and glided his way.

“Use the shards and arrows against them!” I yelled as I swept by. “They’re the only thing that will pierce the armor, and they will defend against more weapons!” Stoick glanced at the arrow he held, then at the soldier bearing down on him from nearby, and lashed out with all the strength he could muster. The arrow cleaved through the soldier’s matching armor and brought the man to the ground with ease. I grinned and burst upward, tired of creating electrical shows for now and deciding to go a different direction as the Vikings below began utilizing their newfound weaponry.

I continued upward until I hit the base of the clouds gathering above and now covering the sky, before flipping over and tucking my wings, screaming downward like one of the enemy’s arrows. Closer and closer the water came, as I aimed for the narrow path between the two vortices of fire I had made before. Then, I shot through, the fire on either side of me flaring outward as the water below simultaneously blasted in every direction from the sonic blast of my passing. The armada loomed before me, all several dozen splayed out across the water, and even with all we had faced less than half the vessels had yet disgorged their occupants. With grim satisfaction, I decided that less than half of what was left would ever disembark either.

My body changed color and shape again, growing slim and crystalline blue in appearance, and the water below began to freeze underneath and around me, sprays of ice shards flying outward instead of droplets as I rocketed past. I charged through the ranks of the armada, buzzing through the ships before flaring my wings, somewhat enjoying the cringe of soldiers around me as the air dropped below freezing. Then, they exited the temporary trance and raised their bows and other weapons of war, a rain of arrows pouring down in my direction. I close my eyes for a split second, focusing, before releasing the first blast.

* * *

“Here, eat metal butt-elf!”

Ruff and Tuff had finally picked up on the secret of the odd steel alloy that their opponents had tried using against them, and had stuck with Astrid and Fishlegs, taking on the soldiers who managed to land on the bluff above the marina. Grabbing chunks of the metal to use as makeshift shields, the pair of them ran in front of Barfbelch, snagging shards wherever they lay and throwing them at the soldiers in unpredictable patterns, making it impossible for the other side to reach them.

“Ruff, Tuff! Head to the storehouse, take out the army gathering there!” Astrid yelled, rolling to avoid a sword before swiping upward and effectively gutting the soldier with her axe, and then throwing a shard nearby into the back of the man bearing down on Fishlegs. “We’ll catch up as soon as we’re done here!”

“Got it!” The two said together, both of them head-butting another enemy before leaping up and into their Zippleback’s saddles, taking off. Soaring over the nearest storehouse, they spotted the team Astrid had mentioned, heading in the direction where they could see Camicazi and Thuggory.

“Barf, fire!” Ruffnut yelled, the head she sat behind complying and sending a cloud of gas into the battalion, Tuffnut following through and igniting the reactive chemical, sending soldiers flying. Then, they landed, and the twins jumped off, grabbing up a couple arrows lying around and running screaming, into what was left over, before Tuff turned and spotted Cami, facing off against a soldier while another came up behind her.

“Cami, look out!” he screamed, running forward and throwing the arrow in his hand as hard as he could. A lucky shot and it entered the vulnerable spot on the back of the soldier’s neck. Camicazi looked behind her, eyes widening, before she grinned. “Thanks Tuff!” “Don’t mention it!” he yelled back, before letting out a manic cry and bowling right into another opponent.

Cami and Thuggory soon ran into Snotlout, meanwhile, and as their Nightmares and Mood Dragon laid down cover fire, the three of them raced into the fray Berserker style, picking up fallen metal pieces and turning them into flying shrapnel or (in Snotlout’s case) bludgeons, mowing down opponents and giving the Vikings cornered under cover a chance to grab objects to protect themselves with.

Slowly, the tide appeared to be turning, and the losing enemy began to realize it was because of them. Their mechanical dragons had a dangerous design flaw, susceptible to the high temperature fire of some of the opposing dragons as well as that dragon boy’s electrical abilities, but once in the hands of the Vikings the leftover shards and chunks had no such issues being used against the soldiers.

However, as of yet still no one quite knew what Jezebel and the sea serpent were doing, or where they’d disappeared to, and everyone was still oblivious to the men about to ambush their weakest villagers. The war seemed to be turning in the favor of the Hooligans and their allies, but there was plenty of time for everything to go wrong.

* * *

The entire scene within 100 feet of me, every direction, was frozen. Not metaphorically, but literally. Ice coated the ocean’s surface between me and the edges of the armada, but anywhere nearby, even the boats, machines, and the men were completely frozen in place. That’s what you get when you combine a Blizzard Dragon with anything electrical: an icy EMP. But I wasn’t done. Only a hundred or so enemies had been caught directly in the blast, and the rest were scrambling to take me down.

Now that everything nearby and, to an extent, the rest of the ships were stuck in place, I melted into Night Fury form, flying upward out of reach of the arrows, and began building up fuel for as large a fireball as I could. At the same time between my front paws I focused electrical energy, pouring it into a glowing, pulsing sphere. The Fury’s flame and lighting combined, a barrier field holding the two clashing forces together and forcing them to grow and coalesce into something completely new, and far more dangerous.

An interesting bit of information: a Night Fury fireball is already explosive, containing chemical properties entirely unique to that species, and the biggest shots are like small bombs themselves. However, the chemicals of Night Fury fire are also electroreactive, so combine it with any sort of lightning or static, and multiply by about a factor of five, and it becomes the equivalent of a nuclear fusion. I had found that out only a couple months before, tipped off by the spinoff Dragons series that had been on TV, and kept it a secret. Now, however, I released the sphere in my paws that held that secret, sending it careening down into the center of Jezebel’s armada.

The second it touched a hard surface the sphere exploded, obliterating the closest ships entirely and ripping the rest to pieces, the shockwave shattering the ocean ice sheet and sending shards like supersonic spears through anything in sight.

* * *

Hiccup and Ember turned just in time to watch the mushroom cloud erupt over the enemy ships, wincing at the sonic sound. “3 guesses who that was,” Hiccup drawled. Ember chuckled as she drew back her bow again, releasing the arrow and spearing another soldier on dragon-back as he went past. “How many people do we know that can turn themselves into a bomb?” she retorted.

Toothless suddenly jerked around, releasing a blast that sheared through the side of another draconic machine, before barking to get his two passengers’ attention. They looked down at him and he nodded toward the island’s mountains. Following his gaze, both Hiccup and Ember just barely noticed through a layer of trees the group of men skirting the cliff-side trail to the hidden caves.

“They’re going after the kids!” Hiccup yelled. “Toothless, after them!” The Night Fury nodded, powering his way toward the trespassers, before a shadow befell the three. A surge of fire raced downward and cut them off, drawing their attention to the battalion of soldiers and dragons descending upon them, surrounding the trio as fire and arrows began to fly. Hiccup scowled and yelled out in frustration, swinging Framherja outward and pulling back the string, the weapon’s energy sizzling.

“Spitfire, I really hope you’re where you’re supposed to be!” he muttered, and fired.


	17. Turnaround

Alvin grinned wickedly, seeing the mouth of the cave yawning open before him. For those who weren’t familiar with the location, it would have been easy to walk by; ferns and low growing plants covered in the season’s remaining snow cascaded off the side of the cliff and obscured the cavern from view, and the entrance ducked into the side of the mountain from the trail. Alvin had been here before of course, and knew where to look.

He motioned for the soldiers behind him to follow, staying low, before the outcast walked in, brushing away snow as it fell on his helmet and shoulders. Revenge was going to be sweet, swift, and easy, he thought as he hefted his axe into his hands. The rest of his entourage followed suit, pulling out sharpened swords.

Rounding a corner within the passage, Alvin quickly came upon the temporary inhabitants. Grouped together against the wall were children of all ages, and elders and the infirm around them. Most notably, Gothi sat at the head of the group, holding her staff as if in warning to the intruders. Slowly, she stood up, brandishing the staff as she walked out into the open, facing Alvin and his goons and pointing the stick in his direction.

“A terrible mistake you made coming here, Alvin,” the old woman croaked in a hoarse, gravelly voice. “No harm will come to these people, not so long as I stand here, not until you can pass me.”

Alvin chuckled at this display. “Well, well, what a surprise, the little biddy lady is not as mute as they say,” he taunted. Then, he shrugged, and lifted his axe, the gasps of the youths behind Gothi making him sneer. “Ah, doesn’t matter anyway,” he mused, “ye won’t be that hard te remove.” With a savage growl, he swung the axe downward, the children screaming in fear and Gothi’s aged staff holding no chance of deflecting the blow.

A screeching hiss echoed through the cave, and from the walls a blast of glowing acid streamed out, smacking into and eating right through the axe head and handle. The remains clattered uselessly to the ground, as Alvin spun around, trying to find the attacker. Having had no direct experience with Changewings, he soon found out that it’s nearly as hard to find the chameleon-like dragon as it is a Stealth dragon. Spitfire skirted unseen upward to the cave’s ceiling. <You won’t be leaving here after something like that,> the dragon growled, and fired again.

The acid rained down from above and splattered across the soldier’s helmets, steam rising from both the heat of the liquid and its corrosive reaction. Alvin raised his shield to avoid the deadly precipitation, but could not evade the whiplike tail that swung inward, taking out his legs and those of the soldiers behind him who were still standing. The Outcast quickly stood up again and grabbed a fallen sword, determined to at least kill something while he was here, and a couple of the unfazed soldiers followed his example.

Unseen claws swiped through the air and pierced their armor, throwing the men back and turning them into makeshift bowling balls, knocking down the soldier “pins” near the cave’s entrance. As they untangled themselves and tried to get back up, Spitfire revealed himself for just long enough to make a statement and roar furiously at them before vanishing again, another jet of acid spraying out.

Alvin, having no cares for anyone but himself, grabbed a dazed infantryman and used him as a living shield, ignoring the screams as the acid hit home. He tossed the man aside, readying to fight, before the Changewing’s tail whipped upward again and slammed against his face, the hard scales leaving a wide gash and rising welt to match the scars the man already bore, before the appendage moved on and wrapped around a hapless soldier, and threw him out the front of the cave, the man screaming as he collided with the cliff and then tumbled down over the side.

The other soldiers, or at least those who were still alive and able to move after the acid attacks, decided that they wanted to live and bolted for the cave entrance. Not all were fast enough, as another stream of corrosive liquid sprayed out and brought down a couple more men.

“Where are ye going?!” Alvin roared, furious. “One little dragon ain’t enough te deter me, and we haven’t even begun te accomplish what we came here fo…” He trailed off as Spitfire revealed himself once more, standing above the children protectively and flaring his wings full span, teeth bared menacingly. Alvin’s eyes widened, and now he took a step back.

Changewings are normally considered to be small dragons as it is. While Spitfire had admittedly been less than full grown when he had first arrived on Berk (after being found at the hunting base on the mainland) however, he had grown a great deal since then. The Changewing was now far larger than a normal example of his species, big enough to deter even the pugnacious Outcast standing before him. With a wingspan alone of nearly 50 feet across, Spitfire could have easily taken even a Monstrous Nightmare head-on, let alone Alvin.

“Mark my words, beast, I will be back then,” Alvin hissed, seeing even the children emboldened by their reptilian guard and ready to fight, and deciding even he wanted to live another day. Quickly he ducked back around the corner of the cave and exited, paying no attention to the bodies strewn across the entrance. He knew well Jezebel would not be pleased, her ally not even close to accomplishing his task; heck he was more than ticked off at having been cheated from his revenge, but Alvin was called treacherous for a reason: there was always next time.

_Assuming that pain-in-the-rear shapeshifter Stoick made friends with doesn’t wipe out my whole crew first,_ Alvin thought bitterly as he caught sight of the dying remnants of the explosion in the harbor.

Spitfire, meanwhile, settled down somewhat and skirted to the cave’s entrance, checking to make sure no second wave of assault was on its way. He also removed the dead soldiers from the cave, tossing them down into the steep valley so the children wouldn’t have to look at the acid-scorched corpses any longer, before turning to glance at Gothi, nodding in reassurance. Everyone was safe here for now, and Spitfire settled right across the mouth of the cave, ready to make sure they stayed that way.

* * *

As the effects of the nuclear blast died down and the debris quit raining out of the sky, Stoick signaled to Gobber to get the other villagers moving again. After scavenging on the pieces of fallen metal (thanks in part to the riders who had started clearing out paths to get to the remains) they no longer had to hide so much behind or in houses and other shelters, and so the three tribes rallied together, charging out and into the lines of soldiers forming on the ground. Stoick spotted one man who looked slightly different from the rest, and who was directing the troops, and chose him as his next target. The chief powered forward, plowing through a weak assembly of infantrymen and rammed the general head-on, taking him down hard, while Gobber came in behind him, axe attachment in one hand and his newly christened sharp-edged “shield” flashing away as he barreled through the men around him. Soon enough a good dozen troops were matching the smith in number of extant limbs.

“Keep them disorganized and we can keep them down,” Stoick ordered. “Pass that on to Bertha and Mogadon.” Gobber nodded, grinning. “Gotcha!” he yelled, before plowing through another line and heading for the two allied chiefs. Stoick couldn’t help but chuckle at his friend’s blunt approach to things, before he turned and punched an opponent straight to the face, leaving the man with ten teeth less and an unconscious state of being.

Astrid stood closer to the harbor, just as fired up for action, and she rolled past Thorn and spun with her axe like a tornado, slicing away at anyone stupid enough to get near her. Thorn, meanwhile, released a stream of fire, opening a path for her rider to follow, and then lashed out with her tail, spikes flying out and impaling troops left and right.

“Fishlegs, to your left!” Astrid yelled. The burly teen turned and, literally taking matters into his own hands, let his real Viking side out as he yelled, grabbing the soldier in front of him by his chest armor and hauling him into the oncoming trio of soldiers, before running forward and grabbing the least dazed man off the ground and using him as a battering ram to flatten the battalion that was trying to surround Astrid, Meatlug following from above and dropping down on the men that avoided her rider .

A sudden cloud of fire raced past both of them, followed by the yells of the twins. “Hey, Astrid, got a group of enemy dragons coming in, might want to saddle up!” Ruffnut yelled down, before Barfbelch turned and flew over the two teens on the ground, his riders pulling out metal shards and throwing them as hard as they could toward the oncoming swarm. One dragon pulled to the side, avoiding the cloud of dangerous particles, and threw flames toward Ruffnut, who ducked to avoid them and slipped off the saddle.

“AAAAHHHH!!” she screamed, closing her eyes tightly as she waited for the painful landing. Instead, she found herself slowing to a halt, cradled by someone, and opened her eyes to find Fishlegs having caught her, riding on Meatlug and heading up toward Barfbelch. “Might want to think about safety straps on your saddle,” Fishlegs said. Ruffnut smiled in relief, before smirking. “Aww, but that takes all the fun out of it!”

They came up alongside Barf, and Ruff untangled herself from Fishlegs before leaping back into her saddle. “Hey Fish: thanks!” she called out, before turning to find the dragon that had driven her off coming back around. “Want a piece of this?!” she screamed, raising her makeshift shield at the ready.

* * *

Hiccup and Ember grinned as they looked around, finally seeing their side gain ground, until Ember noticed one crucial detail.

“Uh, do we have any idea where Jezebel went?” she asked, glancing around anxiously. Hiccup started at the realization, before glancing around the village below as well. “No, I don’t see her anywhere,” he noted. “Toothless, circle the village.” The dragon complied, banking and making a wide pass around the settlement, but there was nothing, at all.

“Jeez, I don’t even see that overgrown worm of hers either,” Hiccup remarked. “This isn’t good.” “We need to find Hawken and deal with her though,” Ember urged. Hiccup nodded in agreement. “Yeah. The others seem to be handling the situation at the moment at least”- he glanced down and spotted the teens proving his point, ganging up again and flattening a loose arrangement of troops, “-but for some reason I really have a bad feeling.”

Hiccup glanced up, and fired at a dive-bombing metal monstrosity, the electric bolt shattering it, as Ember turned and drew her bow toward another aerial soldier, but he wisely backed off. “Where are we going to find Hawken?” she asked. “Is he still over by the armada? Or at least what’s left of it?”

A massive electrical lightshow erupted out over the bay. Hiccup grinned and directed Toothless toward the display. “The best rule of thumb for finding Hawken in battle?” Hiccup asked rhetorically. “Always look for the most unusual display of destruction.”

* * *

There were still a few ships floating, those that had been at the edge of the armada and had escaped the direct hit from the bomb, and from those ships a few lucky soldiers and mechanic abominations continued to deploy.

“You’re not getting to the village, not on my watch,” I hissed, rising upward again and connecting to that unseen source of energy I had access to. Once more I morphed Lightning Blazer, and as I did so, sparks and streamers began racing across my scales, building up until I was glowing from pure blinding power. The remaining infantries were reaching my elevation, and started to group together and head for Berk, when I released the charge.

Like a shockwave, the electricity exploded outward, the spears of deadly light crackling in every direction as the glowing front fried everything it hit. Some of the soldiers ascended higher or dived to avoid it, but even then tendrils of energy hit some of the escapees.

I kept the flow going for about 30 seconds before, already starting to feel really taxed, I let the lightning fade. As I caught my breath, I surveyed the damage I’d done: ships below were burning, and wreckage was still smoldering from the nuclear attack, and meanwhile nothing within a thousand feet around me was still flying, or at least no longer intact.

“Hawken!”

I spun, and spotted Hiccup, Toothless and Ember flying my way. “What are you three doing out here?!” I yelled back. “I thought you were doing aerial cover for the village!” “The rest of the village is already dealing with that,” Hiccup yelled back. “Ruff and Tuff got ahold of that metal, as did the other teens, and the rest is history. We are starting to win this war.”

“But no one has any idea where Jezebel is,” Ember chimed in, “and I know for a fact she never just idly stands by in a war.” I grimaced, and turned to fly down alongside the trio.

<Did you happen to see which way she went before this started?> I asked Toothless. He shook his head. <No one did. She and the serpent were heading toward the north end of the village, but they’re gone now.>

The frown on my face deepened, and a shiver ran through me. “Let’s go. We don’t have much time.”

The four of us coursed back across the bay, and as we passed the vortices that were still roiling with flame, I sucked the sustained energy out of them and watched as the fire died back to steam across the water, no longer needed. Then, we sailed high over the village, watching the minor battles occurring in isolated areas throughout the settlement below. Everything was appearing under control, though it would be a while before the Vikings got all the eastern soldiers hemmed in.

Then, I spotted something very suspicious: an odd object lying hidden underneath a collapsed shed at the edge of the village. “Hold up you three!” I called, folding my wings ad spilling down toward the ground, landing quickly and running up to the boards covering the object.

It was roughly cylindrical in shape, with semi-tapered ends, and approximately five feet long. The outer shell was made of a hodgepodge mix of heavy plastics and tampered metals, and as I moved the pieces of shed out of the way and tried to pick it up, even with enhanced strength the thing was incredibly heavy. I heard the others glide down and land behind me, but they fell out of my focus as I rolled the cylinder over and found a panel, with a complex of wires and circuits crisscrossing it, and on one end a digital signal and display system. A deathly chill swept through me.

<What on earth is that thing?> Toothless queried. I barely heard him, too caught up in the growing panic that was rising up in me. Only when Hiccup repeated the exact same question did I turn to glance at them.

“Hiccup, do you remember when I first showed up in Berk?” I asked. “That last night, when I was talking to you guys about the weapons of my world?” He nodded, but nothing came to light in his expression. “Yeah, but…what does that have to do with that…that…whatever that thing is?”

I shook my head, panic taking my attention again. “This is not good, this shouldn’t even be possible,” I muttered. “Technology is way behind here, this shouldn’t even come around for another”-

“Hawken!” Hiccup snapped. I looked up at him again from the object in my hands. “Just tell us what it is and we’ll go from there,” he toned. I sighed, trying to clear my head.

“Hiccup, this is a nuclear bomb,” I finally said. “It’s a weapon more destructive than any other; this thing could wipe out the village in two seconds flat!” Finally, Hiccup’s eyes went wide in realization and recollection, his face paling to match mine. I nodded. “You saw what I did to the ships out there? This is twice what that did, possibly more.” “What is it doing here?!”

I shrugged, and glanced at Ember, who shook her head. “Look, I know Jezebel was way ahead of us in terms of inventions,” she excused, “thanks to the people and influence she has under her power, but this is completely unfamiliar to me.” I grimaced, before sprouting out a pair of wings again.

“The only answer I have is she has access either to my world somehow, or a link to the future,” I said. “But right now, we need to get rid of this.” I prepared to take off again, but before I could I head Astrid yell out for me. I glanced up to see her and Thorn glide down and land nearby, and then I paled even further when I saw what Thorn had in her talons.

“We saw this when we were fighting,” Astrid explained. “It was hiding behind a storehouse, and no one recognizes it.” “Oh God, this is really, really bad,” I whispered, before locking eyes on Thorn.   
<Get all the dragons you can find to spare from the fight and find any of these you can, and dump them out as far as possible into the ocean!> I growled urgently. Thorn nodded, and I relayed the same message to Astrid, before I took off and headed out to sea, throwing the bomb I had in my paws as far as I could away from the island. As long as they went off out below the waves, the village would be semi-safe, but if even one was left on the island….

I landed again and looked over at Toothless and his current pair of riders. “We need to find Jezebel. Now.”

* * *

Twenty miles southeast of Berk, a cloaked figure rocketed through the air toward the island. The explosion that went off earlier could be seen for miles, and the electrical displays that had lit up the cloudy sky were like a beacon, one that the figure knew could only be the result of either of two people. He knew what Jezebel was capable of, and what the boy was capable of too, at least partly. If that explosion had been from the latter, there was only a short amount of time left before everything went wrong again, but if it was the first…well, the guardian that frequented that island was powerful, but Jezebel was ancient, and had more than just mere tricks up her sleeve to wield. The invisible figure continued to race toward Berk, praying he reached it before everything was lost.

* * *

I streaked toward the forest that spread out from just above the village, as Jezebel clearly wasn’t anywhere nearby, and started to work my way toward the edge of the mountains. Toothless took Hiccup and Ember toward Raven’s Point, south of my trajectory, to see if they could find anything there. Since we knew at this point that there were multiple explosives littered around the island, or at least the southern portion of it, and it appeared Jezebel had had plenty of time to place them already, they could blow at any time if we didn’t find the witch before she detonated them.

It seemed like an hour before Toothless appeared again, racing up alongside me. “She’s set up in the meadow just beyond Raven’s Point,” Hiccup said breathlessly. “The sea serpent is with her as well, and it definitely looks like she’s been setting up something major.” I nodded. “Let’s go. Lead the way.”

We raced over the treetops, scanning for the treacherous duo, and as we flew I happened to glance over at Ember, who appeared very focused on Hiccup’s bow. “Something wrong?” I called to her. She jerked slightly, startled by my question, and looked up. “No, nothing,” she said, “I just feel like I’m missing something really important right now, and it has to do with Hiccup’s weapon.” “You mean like the night you first saw it?” he asked. She nodded. “Yes, but I can’t remember what it’s supposed to be for.”

“Well, we know it shoots lightning,” I noted. “That’s not what I mean,” Ember deadpanned. “There was something, part of a legend, like it was some sort of key to”-

“There she is!” Hiccup announce suddenly, cutting Ember off. My head snapped forward again, and sure enough Jezebel stood in the clearing, apparently typing away at what appeared to be a computerized transmitter system, which was shocking enough in and of itself. Worse though, the clearing was completely encircled by the sea serpent, who ended up being the first of the two to spot us. He lunged upward as we sailed past, narrowly missing me, but was distracted by a plasma bolt searing across the back of his neck as Toothless swung around and took a shot. The serpent turned to face Toothless and his current riders.

“Hawken, you take care of Jezebel!” Hiccup yelled. “Toothless and I will deal with the serpent!” “What about”- I started, before Ember leapt off, landing and rolling from practice and drawing her bow as she came to her feet again. Then she looked up at me, waiting. I sighed and dove down as Toothless and Hiccup drew the sea monster off into the forest, landing next to the fiery-haired girl.

“Alright,” I growled, sliding out a pair of swords, “let’s go deal with this witch.”


	18. Battles of Legend

“We need to get to the sea stacks,” Hiccup urged, glancing back and watching the sea serpent race through the trees below after them. For a creature of the ocean, and one with no legs at that, he sure was fast on land. In any case Hiccup knew he and Toothless weren’t going to lose him, for sure, but they also weren’t going to get any time to plan an attack or defense.

Hiccup sighed at that thought, chuckling darkly. No matter what he did, every plan they came up with eventually went haywire, and boiled down to the same thing: what will the next move be?

The duo arced out over the edge of the island, away from the cliffs and out over the ocean, turning to bear down on the sea stacks to the west. They loomed ahead, mazes of towering rock teetering precariously in every direction. Behind them, a serpent cutting through the waves and hell-bent on revenge, and ahead, the first place Hiccup almost died while flying Toothless.

Toothless barked up at his rider, nodding his head to indicate a very sharp turn coming up. Hiccup acknowledged, spurring the dragon onward. The rocks ahead looped in an odd manner, those experienced aware of a small hole that faced backward and would bring the pair behind the unaware serpent, who reached the rock maze just as the duo banked and sped into the turn, curving around the rocks and disappearing from sight for a moment’s time. The serpent stopped, the area going silent as he glanced around, waiting for the pair to make their next move.

The snake spun around suddenly, catching the faint noise of flapping wings and turning just in time to spot Hiccup and Toothless coming in from behind, preparing to fire. He hissed angrily and whipped his tail up, the fin at the end spreading wide and exposing the spines at the edges.

“Whoa!” Hiccup yelled, holding tightly as Toothless banked out of the way just barely in time, the wind of the moving appendage nearly knocking them off balance anyway. The serpent’s tail continued moving, crashing into a nearby pillar and sending a cascade of boulders crashing down around the demon. Toothless wasted no time, catching an air current and sailing into a nearby stand of rocks, disappearing once more from sight.

The sea serpent’s eyes narrowed, a growl of anger rising in his throat. “Why keep hiding?” he hissed. “You can be cowards and run from the fight, but you’ll have to come out and face me sooner or later!”

The snake’s words made Hiccup stumble in his thoughts for a moment, forgetting the thing could talk, before shaking off the shock and grabbing Framherja. “Lots of big talk,” he muttered, “let’s see if your lightning tongue can stand a real bolt, you overgrown worm!”

Toothless swerved back around again, shooting upward, flying above the pillars as Hiccup aimed down through a gap at the sea serpent. The now familiar crackling beam of light formed on the weapon, and as Toothless flipped again to line himself up for a shot at the serpent’s head, Hiccup fired.

The bolt lanced down toward the serpent, and he looked up just as it came down, impacting with an explosion that slammed the reptile into the sea stacks. Dazed by the hit, he barely jerked out of the way as another bolt drove itself into the rocks, sending shrapnel flying in every direction.

Toothless swept by and looped back upward, coming around and readying a fireball to match up with Hiccup’s bow. However, in the time it took for them to line up for another shot, the serpent had shaken off the hit and was ready. As the duo dove again, the serpent’s skin shimmered, energy racing downward. He swung his tail upward, drawing a wall of water with it and aiming the deluge right for the pair. Toothless screeched and swerved out of the way, avoiding the main attack, but did not miss entirely. Water came raining down across his tail, and the dragon screeched again in sudden pain.

That’s when they realized what their opponent had done: as the liquid splashed across Toothless it instantly crystallized, freezing solid and locking Toothless’ tail up, making it impossible for him to maneuver. He and Hiccup began to fall through the air, Hiccup barely hanging onto the saddle as Toothless desperately turned himself to try and aim for a nearby sea stack. They hit hard, Hiccup flying free and a shock of searing pain running through his shoulder as he scraped across the dirt. Toothless felt a similar agony race up from his tail, and when he stopped moving finally, he glanced back to see what had happened.

The sight nearly made the dragon faint. The ice had done its job far more than well enough; Toothless’ right tailfin had frozen completely and cracked in half, a jagged cut through the center. Given a week or two there was the chance it would repair on its own once thawed, but for now Toothless was effectively grounded.

Toothless then turned to Hiccup, and roared in anxiety again. Hiccup’s left arm was not moving, and as the boy slowly sat up it hung limply to the side. Hiccup wince in pain as he gingerly touched the limb.

“Toothless, I think…I think my arm is broken,” Hiccup said quietly, fear building in his eyes as he took in the damage to the Night Fury’s tailfin. Toothless carefully stood up and limped over to him, showing the extent of the damage when his tail came off the ground. Hiccup’s eyes widened as he saw the back half of Toothless’ fin hang limply, unmoving.

“So, we’re stranded here,” Hiccup groaned, “and I can’t use Framherja.” He winced again as he carefully reached down and slid out the sword that still hung from his side, the one with his name and the Fury emblem engraved on the blade. “I still have this, but we’re in serious trouble bud,” he said quietly, glancing at his companion before looking up to see the sea serpent looming above them once more, grinning in triumph.

* * *

I raced toward Jezebel, sword up and at the ready and my scales practically glowing with the power I was building up. Next to me I saw Ember beginning to glow similarly, licks of flame appearing as her feet melted the snow and incinerated the fallen leaves beneath and the occasional pine needle hit her fiery hair and vaporized. Focusing forward again I leapt upward as I neared the sorceress, bringing the sword down in a smooth arc, right on top of the circuit console in front of her.

CRRRASSSHHHHH!!! ZZZEEEWWWW!!!

I should have been expecting at least some sort of defense, but forgot to prepare for one, and so as the blade hit the barrier around Jezebel and her equipment, a shower of sparks and bolts of light exploded outward, catapulting me backward into the slush and leaving the sword in my hand blackened and smoking.

I stood up slowly again, and Jezebel calmly turned to face me, frowning as if disappointed and placing a hand on her side condescendingly. “Honestly, did you even stop to think if that would be so ridiculously easy?” she asked. I ignored the question and focused on the energy barrier rippling back to normal around her, the Skrill’s abilities coming to play as I analyzed the power in the shield, and built up a charge to match and counter it as best I could. Then I drew back my hand, and slammed it into the field again while releasing my energy.

A new explosion ripped outward as the opposites came together, a brilliant greenish light racing in a great arc around Jezebel and completely shutting down the field. Without hesitating I swung the sword in my other hand upward, only to be parried by the sword of equal length that now appeared in Jezebel’s grip.

“Well, at least it was easy enough to get to you,” I snarked, pulling out a second sword and swinging both in from different angles. Jezebel stayed a step ahead as she too pulled out a sword, equaling me in number of weapons used but still managing to pull off the appearance of being bored stiff.

I spotted Ember coming in from behind with a sword she had taken claim to earlier, and attempted to divert all of Jezebel’s attention to me. “I have to say I was not expecting you to have computers and electronic gear in use already,” I drawled, swinging in and trying to get the sorceress to falter. She blocked me casually and replied. “Oh, just another special surprise for you. After all, I know where you come from, and I know things about this place you could not possibly imagine. And don’t think I won’t use every bit of that knowledge against you and your pathetic friends!”

I growled and whipped out the split Zippleback tail, grabbing the last two of my swords strapped to my back and bringing all four blades into action. Jezebel was not a bluff however, and brought in skill I had never seen before to push me further and further away from her equipment. Her costly oversight however was still Ember, and as I kept her busy Ember slipped in, heating up her blade and driving it straight through the center of the biggest circuit board available.

The crackling and sparks finally caught Jezebel’s attention once more, and she glanced back to see Ember pulling the glowing blade up through the nearby computer screen and into the next bundle of wires. In a loud POP!! the entire system suddenly shut down and began smoking impressively. Jezebel’s eyes narrowed as she turned them back to me, swinging one sword toward Ember and reaching just far enough to make the girl leap back in shock, while with the other blade expertly spinning my weapons to the side, leaving my front open. Her blades came back together and with incredible speed she drove them toward my chest, a sickening black suddenly coloring their tips.

Automatically I raised a barrier field, unable to bring my swords up to block the attack, but that was a mistake. As the swords struck red sparks exploded outward, and a searing pain lanced through my chest, causing me to lose concentration and stumble backward. I doubled over, agony drilling straight through my center, and I looked down to see a poisonous black spreading across the front of my shirt and seeping in vein-like patterns into my skin. Then I glanced back up.

Jezebel sneered as she lazily turned around to face Ember, who was radiating heat intense enough to blacken the ground below her. “Looks like your friend will be busy for some time,” the witch drawled, gesturing to me with one sword while casually spinning the other one as I strained to pour healing into the poison wound, “so why don’t we make this easy and you just surrender now? I’ve only just begun here.”

“I already managed to ruin your…whatever they are,” Ember snapped back, gesturing her own blade to the computer consoles she’d melted. “Somehow I don’t think those things work when they’re split in two.” “The word most people would be familiar with is computer,” Jezebel returned, her tone indicating great boredom. “Honestly they weren’t important; I only needed them to set up the first step.”

I’d barely managed to stem the spread of the black when I happened to look up again as see Jezebel holding in her hand a small signal button. “This is now all I need to end this entire island,” she said. “One wrong move and everyone here ends up as even less than ash. Don’t think about trying to destroy it either, it has a failsafe that will activate the bombs if that happens.”

“And what if you’re still on the island when that happens?” Ember asked. “Any weapon can destroy its creator just as easily as its target.” Jezebel laughed in response. “I can’t be hurt by such a thing. Even a nuclear explosion can be held back by an energy field of sufficient strength. My men may die, but I will survive it all.”

Ember glanced fearfully down at me, not seeing a way out so long as I was immobile, and I was; any movement at all and my chest exploded in fire. Through gritted teeth I managed to mutter, “Just don’t…give…in to her!” Then I was forced to turn away and close my eyes, pouring every form of energy I could think of into the pulsing black on my front. Finally, it began to shrink away, but not quickly; I was going to be useless for several minutes more.

Meanwhile, the air continued to heat up as Ember burned even hotter, and I heard more crackling and popping as more of the nearby machinery melted. “End everything and there is no gain, Jezebel,” Ember warned. “I will stand, here and now. You have had me and everyone I’ve ever cared about on the run for years; you took away my closest friend and turned him into a monster, and you threaten the very balance of two worlds. We will end this, now, and I’m a lot more than you ever knew.” She swept up her sword, the metal glowing red, and sparks flew as it met the first of Jezebel’s weapons.

* * *

The sea serpent lunged, mouth wide open, at Hiccup, who barely managed to leap out of the way, crying out at the pain the jolt sent through his arm before turning and weakly swinging the sword he held in his right hand. Naturally the serpent was well out of reach by the time the blade came down.

Hiccup’s luck was running to the bottom of the barrel now, his being left-hand dominant and at the same time unable to use in any manner the weapon on his back, Framherja. He’d also been cut off from Toothless by the serpent’s strike, both of them on opposite ends of the sea stack and the dragon forced further away by the unpredictably swinging tail of the ocean-goer. The serpent knew this, and was targeting the boy as well, as he was the easier target and if Hiccup was gone, everything else would start to fall apart.

As the demon struck down again, however, a powerful fireball to the side of the head knocked him away. Toothless couldn’t get to Hiccup quickly, but even from well over a hundred feet away he had all the accuracy he needed. The serpent shook off the pain and whipped his head to face the Night Fury, snarled, and flicked his tail, the armored tip coming down hard.

“TOOTHLESS! NOO!!!” Hiccup screamed, but he couldn’t do anything. Neither could Toothless, as the serpent’s tailfin spread wide and blocked his escape, and the full force of the blow came straight down on top of him.

A resonating, sickening crack resounded, and a similar feeling ran through Hiccup. The teen dropped to his knees as the sea serpent’s tail moved away, revealing Toothless completely unconscious and sporting not only a broken tail, but also a shattered wing, cracked ribs, and a forepaw bent at an unnatural angle.

The serpent glared disdainfully at the fallen dragon, before turning almost lazily back toward Hiccup, who was now torn between agony for his companion and rage at their foe. The boy pulled his sword up in a shaky hand but a strong grip, ready for one final strike. Without Toothless or Framherja to back him up, and the serpent learning their tricks far too quickly, he had no doubt it would soon be over. He stood up straight as he could, a single tear dropping from his left eye, as the serpent opened his mouth and lunged again.

A stream of fire so bright it was almost white lanced out of the air and raced across the serpent’s neck, followed by a second stream of black liquid that hit the sea serpent’s forehead and flowed down his back, hissing and bubbling as it contacted skin and scale. The serpent screamed in pain and fell backward, diving into the water in an attempt to wash off the acid. Hiccup watched on, dumbfounded, before finally thinking to look up to see what had saved him from such an untimely end.

The air rippled as something large flew through the air, cloaked but starting to fade into view. As it neared the sea stack, the figure finally blurred into focus: well over 50 feet in length, reminiscent of a Night Fury in shape, but with horns on the head and a pair of blades on the tail.

“Shadow Lord!” Hiccup gasped, stumbling back in shock and a new form of fear rising up. The dragon glared at him before closing its eyes and seeming to sigh. Then it glanced toward where the water continued to churn below them.

“Please, call me Orha,” the dragon spoke, “and I sincerely apologize about our last encounter but I wasn’t exactly in control of my own head. But we’ll have to talk about that later, the serpent won’t stay down there for long. Can you still hold on while flying, or will we have to figure something else out?”

Hiccup imitated a fish for a few moments, mouth opening and closing in shock, before his mind finally caught up to the situation and things began piecing together. “So you’re… uh…that’s…well, okay, never mind,” he stuttered. “It’s really not important right now is it?” Orha shook his head. “Important for later, but not now. And I will ask again: can you hold on or not?” Hiccup shrugged slightly. “Uh, maybe? My arm is not exactly in good shape, but I can try.”

Orha nodded, and then knelt down. “Then let’s find out. Get on; you and your friend need to get back to the main island if you’re going to get through this.” Hiccup nodded, still about five steps behind in his mind, but slowly walked up anyway and carefully hoisted himself up onto the Shadow Lord’s-scratch that, Hiccup realized, Ember said they had a different name-the Shadowracer’s back, just as the serpent started to resurface.

Orha turned and grabbed Toothless as carefully as he could, then carefully lifted off, taking all three of them out of the serpent’s reach and back toward Berk’s shores.

They reached the treeline, the Shadowracer diving into a dense thicket to escape detection for some time, and then Orha carefully laid Toothless on the ground. Hiccup slid off as soon as they settled, wincing again as his arm jolted from the landing. Toothless began to stir, his eyes flickering open, and after the pain registered his vision cleared, and the first thing he saw was the other dragon.

<Shadow Lord!> he hissed, attempting to stand before the broken paw made itself known and causing Toothless to wince and fall back to the ground again. He settled on glaring at Orha. <What on earth are you doing here again?!>

Orha sighed again, no doubt expecting this reaction. <Calm yourself, Night Fury. As I told your rider I was not truly my own self the last time we met. Today I am here to help.>

<Yeah right,> Toothless growled. <Help get rid of us like the witch is.> <Look, we can argue all you want about me later,> Orha barked, interrupting the next line Toothless had ready. <The serpent is already back on his way over here,> he gestured to the snapping of trees near the coast. <You need to take Hiccup and hide until someone can help get you two back into fighting shape. I’ll hold off the serpent as long as I can.> The larger dragon turned and took off once more, shimmering out of sight and leaving the pair speechless. A few moments later fierce roars and the sound of roiling fire and energy resonated across the forest.

Hiccup limped over to Toothless, finding among other things there was a bruise in his right leg making itself known. The dragon gave a short bark and nodded his head toward the thicker grove of trees just behind them, his thoughts clear. Hiccup shook his head fervently at the idea however. “Absolutely not. There is no way I am just going to leave you, bud,” he replied, leaning to place his one good hand on the Night Fury’s head. “Like everything else, we are getting through this together, one way or another. I do not care”-

The island shuddered underfoot as dozens of massive explosions went off in the waters and the hills all around them, cutting Hiccup off as he stumbled from the vibrations. A massive glow emanated suddenly from just to the west of the village, a beam of intensely white light arcing up and over the forest. Both Hiccup and Toothless only stared on, speechless, until a pair of beams split off from the main branch and pierced through the trees, driving straight into the duo.

Hiccup would never be able to describe the sensation that ran through him. His arm snapped into place suddenly and the pain of the bruise in his leg evaporated. He felt like he was glowing, pure energy coursing through every single cell in his body and making him feel like he would explode from the power. Then, the surge stopped, followed by a great shockwave of light high above the island, rippling across nearly the entire visible skyline and clearing the air of any low lying clouds. As it died, traces of auroras danced in its place.

Hiccup stood motionless for a moment before shaking his head and blinking a couple times, trying to return to earth as his lips remained wordless. Then he looked to Toothless, who now stood on all fours and was looking over himself as well, everything flawlessly repaired: no cracked tailfin, no broken legs or wings, not even traces of the scratches and cuts they had both gained in their uncontrolled landing earlier.

“What…was…that?!” Hiccup stuttered. Toothless only shrugged, no clue either, before he turned his head to look toward the coast. He and Hiccup could both hear the sounds of the fight with the serpent resuming, and Toothless snarled in anticipation. Hiccup got the hint, and after looking again at his fully healed arm, nodded in agreement. “Well, Toothless, shall we end this?”

As it was, Orha barely made a match for the serpent himself, his ability to cloak even from infrared allowing him to stay one step ahead. Then when the explosions went off, it was no longer a benefit. A light source that intense could illuminate anything, and his faint silhouette showed just long enough for the serpent to manage a lucky hit, knocking the Shadowracer senseless. Orha plowed through the trees near the shoreline, shaking his head clear afterward and turning just in time to fire off at the approaching demon, deflecting an attack and giving the dragon time to recuperate.

The serpent didn’t waste much time however, circling the dragon and making any attempt at taking off dangerous at best. <It would have been better had you stayed by our side,> he hissed. Orha snarled back, <I was never with your side, you sickened worm!> The words struck home, and the serpent bared his fangs, rearing back and striking forward in a speed the cornered dragon could never avoid.

TSSSSEEEWWWW!!! BBOOOMMMM!!!

Twin explosions, one electrostatic and the other plasma fire, slammed into the demon, sending him skidding through the trees, dazed and scales smoking. Orha, knocked to the dirt as well by the shockwave, looked up in shock and spotted Hiccup atop Toothless and flying in fast. Having been around Jezebel’s minions so long Orha immediately recognized the weapon in the teen’s hand, but didn’t have a chance to ask about it.

“Can you fly?” Hiccup asked hurriedly. Orha stood up shakily and spread his wings to check, before nodding. “Then go find my friends,” Hiccup continued, “and help them with Jezebel. There’s someone who really needs to see you again, and we can handle the worm from here.” As if to prove his point, Hiccup drew Framherja and fired again, taking the still-dazed serpent by surprise and removing a patch of scales from his tailfin. Orha nodded in compliance and carefully took to the air, gliding toward where the beam of light had erupted from in hopes to find the sorceress there.

* * *

Ember’s sword, heated up to a dangerous level, would have normally been enough to cleave through the sword Jezebel held, as the witch’s was no more than tempered steel. Ember’s blade, however, was not enchanted by dark magic. The possessed sword shifted to shades of black once more, like the poison Jezebel had sunk into me, and as the blades collided the black raced over the glowing metal Ember held, shutting down the heat and returning the sword to normal. It could not quite reach Ember’s hands, the heat racing off her too much to overcome, but I could see her beginning to weaken, the drain from trying to stay alight immense.

I still battled with removing the black pain in my chest however. With the last of my remaining energy reserves I forced the spreading shade to a single pinpoint, and in an agonizing move I grew out claws and tore the afflicted skin away, burning the cursed flesh and then slowly healing the hole that was left behind.

Slowly, weakly, I stood up, but I didn’t have the energy to enter a fight with someone as skilled as Jezebel. She still seemed almost bored as she pushed Ember further and further back, against the fractured computers that began to sizzle as Ember’s skin pressed against them once more. Worse, I was reminded by the circuits of the bombs that had been planted, and I knew there was no way Jezebel hid them all where the other riders would find them. I needed to figure out what I would do if she set them off, or if they were set on a timer. A single bomb would level Berk, but there was more than one, and each would be hard to contain, releasing a cocktail of heat, nuclear and radioactive energy. Given a physical link to that energy source there was the possibility that-

A light blinked on in my head, and I grinned. Skrills could detect even faint levels of electricity; Lightning Blazers could tap into any energy even from a distance. If Jezebel set the explosives off, no longer would it benefit her. As I drew my sword up again and gained the sorceress’s attention once more, I expanded that sixth sense of the lightning dragons, tapping into every source of non-living electricity I could feel within a five-mile radius. If anything went off, it would feed directly to me.

I came around the side and faced Jezebel directly, swinging my sword in toward her head. With one hand pushing Ember down, her other swung the second sword up to block my attack. Immediately I reacted, a bladed tail whipping outward and whistling toward the signal button she had placed on the belt at her waist.

The tail blades connected, but with the leather of Jezebel’s belt and not the device. In my exhausted state I had missed, and more or less stabbed her shallowly in the side. The sudden move did distract her slightly, allowing Ember to throw a punch to her arm and remove the threat of the sword above her, the girl following through by rolling away and catching Jezebel’s blade again, twisting it away. Both the sword in my hand and my armored tail then came together around Jezebel’s second sword, locking it in place and keeping her from pulling it away. Then, I grabbed the other sword I had dropped nearby, leveling it at Jezebel’s head as Ember did the same with hers.

“You lose Jezebel,” I said breathlessly. Jezebel stopped for a moment in mild surprise, before smiling and reaching down with her free hand, pressing the button.

Her smile faltered when my own grin spread across my face. As soon as that button was pushed the connections I had sent out came alive, the dozens of explosions rocking the ground under our feet. Energy coalesced and I first felt, then saw the many rivers of light racing my way, fed by power this earth had never seen before.

They hit like a freight train, pure energy waves slamming into me with a physical force. I felt my self practically burning through, the energy filling every cell in my body to bursting and escaping off me in waves of light so strong I could see _through_ everything around me, even through my own skin and muscle. But this was the power of dozens of billions-of-watts bombs, and there was no way I could contain it all myself. Once more I reached out, trying to link to everyone I could think of, and following those links smaller rivulets of light raced out, carrying with them the converted healing and rejuvenating energy I was turning the explosions into and strengthening every friend and ally I had.

Even then, the power still coursed into and around me, and I felt as if I was running a million miles a second in place. Even after I had brought everyone in Berk back to full power it had barely dented the flow, and if I held it all I would vaporize.

With a loud yell and one last heave of mental force, I diverted everything else into one massive beam, which cut through the air straight upward and gathered high above our heads, a glowing sphere flashing and pulsing for a few seconds before giving way to a silent explosion, a wave of light, sparks and auroras pulsing outward and clearing the thick layer of low clouds, warm rain falling as a result while the dying wisps of energy danced like fireflies above.

I turned my head slowly to look at Jezebel once more, feeling as if the wind had been knocked clean out of me yet at the same time more awake and jazzed than I had ever been. “Well, I’m not sure if I should thank or curse you,” I drawled. “After this I’m not going to be able to sleep for a week!”

Jezebel gave her version of a snarl, clearly infuriated at having been cheated out of so easy a victory, and let go of the sword I still held in place, whipping out a pair of long daggers instead. She spun them in hand and speared one my way, the other straight toward Ember’s head. Ember was ready at least, having already had her sword in hand, but I had to jump back and release my grip on the sorceress’s sword as the second blade swept my way. Once clear, I whipped out all four of my swords again, grabbing the ones I had dropped and spinning the ones already in hand, whirling them fast enough to create a small windstorm and swinging them all toward the witch.

Fueled by anger and hundreds of years of practice, somehow Jezebel kept up the dance of death with both Ember and I and held her own. In a deft move she rolled below the fury of blades, sheathing the daggers and scooping up her swords again, before releasing a battery of miniature barrier fields, invisible waves of force, and other tricks that forced our hands away or diverted attacks. A minute later, one force field fired and flung Ember’s blade to the side, making her miss a step and allowing Jezebel to swing the flat of her blade in, knocking the fiery teen to the ground. She would have run Ember through as well had I not caught the leather guard on her arm with my own blade, slicing just deep enough to graze skin. We were not going to win this battle simply by attrition, and Jezebel knew it.

“800 years I have behind me to draw experience from,” she taunted, “with all the powers I need to end this island anyway once I am through with you two. What do you have left to work with?” I scowled, signaling Ember to back off for a moment as I sheathed my swords.

“When will it be learned that all the powers of evil never triumph in the end?” I volleyed back. “I have the power of God to back me up, and the gifts he gives his people can be a lot to take in.” In a flash, I morphed, and immediately after dissolved into a black cloud, melting away into the shadows that surrounded us.

Jezebel cocked an eyebrow. “So you can disappear, hide away from view. Is that all?” She smirked and looked at Ember. “And you leave the girl of fire to finally die as she was supposed to have years ago! What a pity.” She turned to sweep her sword into Ember again, and suddenly found she couldn’t take another step forward.

Ropes of vantablack, formed of solidified shadows and dark matter, erupted from the ground, wrapping around Jezebel’s legs and binding her to the earth, and quickly whipping upward to try and pin her arms as well.

“After 800 years I would think you’d see something else coming, Jezebel,” I drawled, my disembodied voice echoing all around the clearing. “It’s not just disappearing; I can control elements most people will never know exist.” More of the anthracite tendrils erupted, entangling the sorceress’s swords and ripping them from her grasp, before wrenching her arms around behind her back. Then I reached up through them and tightened a hold on her neck, slowly squeezing as my head materialized in front of her.

“You have threatened the lives of thousands of innocents, you play the games of the devil’s hand, and laugh about it like it’s a funny prank,” I growled. “What keeps me from breaking your neck here and now?”

Jezebel glanced wildly around at the unearthly bounds that held her, and finally after all this time the slightest spark of fear ignited in her eyes. Something else flashed too, giving her confidence enough to speak. “You kill me, and you get rid of your fellow guardians,” she countered, meeting my eyes.

I halted completely for a moment, not letting go but not squeezing any tighter, and looked at Ember for some explanation. For a moment she was lost, before something caught her eye, and she gestured with her sword toward Jezebel’s neck. A thin, silvery chain hung down beneath her outer layer of clothing. I extended a tendril and pulled it out, taking in a gasp of surprise when I did.

Dangling on the end of the chain, embedded in a facet clearly made for its purpose, was the amulet Ember had told us about. Something struck me as suspicious however; surely the witch didn’t wear it all the time?

“If I just take it off you, then what happens?” I hissed. Jezebel smirked. “Nothing. But if you kill me, the jewel dies as well, along with that pathetic family that so dearly wished to protect this forsaken world. And don’t bother trying to destroy it either; the only thing that unlocks that amulet, the only thing that could destroy it disappeared along with them.” Jezebel was starting to sound almost gleeful now.

I tightened my grip again. “What weapon?” I hissed. “Why would I tell you?” Jezebel countered, clearly knowing she had an advantage here.

“You don’t have to,” Ember suddenly spoke up. “Mjollnir created the amulet; it could destroy it.” She looked at me, realization sparking in her eyes, and suddenly it started to piece together for me as well. I was stuck for a moment; the memory of Ember’s discussion when she first arrived came to mind, of just who the guardians were that had been trapped. If the only weapon that could destroy the amulet was trapped as well, then we were at a complete loss. There was no-

In my moment of indecision, Jezebel took her chance. With inhuman power she wrenched her arms from my grip and grabbed the shadow rope wrapped around her neck. A power not of this world raced through her and she pulled the bind away, and at the same time somehow ripped me out of my domain of shadows and back into the physical world.

The move was unprecedented, and I was too shocked to react. Instead of melting back into ethereal form I plowed into the dirt and dug a trench through the rock and snow behind me. Dazed for a moment, I stood up and shook it off, turning to face the sorceress and expecting to be hit with a bolt of some new black magic or find a sword flying through the air.

Instead, I turned just in time to see a new blast of fire stream from thin air, knocking Jezebel on her back before an unseen force swept her into the tangled remains of her computers, leaving Jezebel dazed as well.

I looked up, trying to find the figure responsible, and watched as a massive black dragon materialized above us, touching down and making eye contact first with me, and then Ember. I realized then that I knew this dragon as well.

“C-Cain?” I sputtered. The dragon groaned and shook his head. “That was never my name,” he muttered. “It’s really”-

“Orha!” Ember screamed, running forward as the realization dawned on her and wrapping her arms around the dragon’s neck. Then, my words registered and she glanced back at me with an odd expression. “Where did you learn that horrid name?” she queried.

“We met under, uh, some rather unpleasant circumstances before,” I explained. “And this whole fiasco really explains that one. I’m assuming that background he spread was while he was still under the witch’s influence.”

The dragon-Orha, I guess I should really call him-nodded. “Yes, but we can talk later. We need to finish this now, or we won’t get the chance to have a ‘later’.” I nodded in agreement and turned to face Jezebel, who had just gotten back on her feet. Unfortunately…

“Look out!” I yelled. We all dove out of the way as a massive fireball exploded against the ground we once stood on, and I only barely moved in time once more as Jezebel conjured up another one and fired it straight at me. It burned harmlessly against a patch of remaining snow, but Jezebel was only just warming up. In the air surrounding her, sparks and beams of energy began to dance, coalescing in front of her hands. She pointed at me, and two of the beams lanced outward, driving into the ground as I leapt up and scarring the very soil below.

Orha snarled and came in from behind, trying to catch Jezebel by surprise, and fired point blank, but the swirling energy concentrated at the point of contact and lobbed the searing flames back into his face. He screeched and backpedaled, moving further away as electric whips lanced toward him as well.

“One way or another I will win, as I already told you,” Jezebel said. “I may not be able to fight all of you at the same time, but you cannot attack me either. A game of attrition, one by one you will fall; it’s only a matter of time.” She grinned wickedly and raised both her hands. The energy swirled around them, and twin beams shot outward, curling around each other and aiming once more for me, the tips turning that sickly black once more.

I shot upward barely in time, the beams flying past, before the tips turned and followed, far faster than I was moving. I reacted, morphing Lightning Blazer and melting into pure electricity myself and taking off around the clearing at full speed.

Time is a fickle element at high speeds. The world around me appeared to slow, my form moving faster than any eye could track and everything else looking like it was stuck in molasses. The power Jezebel wielded could not move faster than pure electricity, but unfortunately, as energy itself it could match. I turned to see the twin spears still trailing me, tips no longer black as simply maintaining the speed was too much of an energy drain, but I wasn’t gaining anything either.

That left me with one choice: still powering in a circle around the clearing, I built up a counter field to the lances behind, and stopped dead, spinning to face the beams.

We collided, and my field exploded on contact, shattering and throwing me backward, my form slamming into a small tree as I melted back physical. The beams also disintegrated as well, blowing apart all the way back to their source at the outstretched hands of the sorceress. The sudden force ripped open a hole in the swirling field around Jezebel, and while it quickly sealed, it was a start.

Jezebel saw me stop, and lashed out her hand again, a new lance cutting through the air. The tip stayed white, as the black poison appeared to use a great deal of energy to conjure, but this time it caught me off guard, striking me across the shoulder as I ducked out of the way. The pain was powerful, like a hot wire searing through my upper wing, and it distracted me just long enough for Jezebel to focus on Orha, who had taken the time to reorient himself and was diving down at her from above.

The energy field extended upward and flattened like a giant flyswatter, slamming into Orha and sending him crashing to the dirt. I healed my wing by that point and was up and running again toward Jezebel, only to be thrown back, sparks flying, by the barrier once more. Jezebel smirked and lifted her arms, the energy extending to mirror her, and then she slammed her arms down. The field crashed down like a sledgehammer, and I rolled out of the way as it hit the ground, making the earth jump and throwing up dirt and dust into the air, sparks flying.

I stumbled to my feet and morphed human again, shaking my head in dismay. The sorceress had something to match or overtake just about every trick I had up my own sleeves, and so long as she covered her back with some sort of barrier Ember was made useless and Orha and I would never beat her at this rate. Jezebel had the upper hand, and the luxury of being able to focus on one threat at a time when necessary, unless something took out the field.

There lay another problem: as charged as I was now, without some new source of energy like lightning or another bomb, I couldn’t channel enough power to short out the field without the result being akin to another bomb itself, one I wouldn’t be able to react in time to stop. And Jezebel had made sure I couldn’t tap into her field itself. There had to be another key-

A crack of thunder, followed by the sound of an explosion echoed over my head, and Jezebel and her barrier field were shoved halfway across the meadow, sparks of electricity flying in response. I looked up to find Hiccup and Toothless flying in, Hiccup drawing Framherja’s string back for another shot.

“Need a little help?” he called down almost jokingly. I smiled and replied, “More than a little, I’ll admit.” I glanced at Jezebel, who was once more staggering to her feet, dazed despite the protective field around her. “What happened to the serpent?”

“Let’s just say he’s out of the action, and won’t be coming back any time soon,” Hiccup replied. I nodded, and stood back as the duo landed. Hiccup drew his bow back fully and took aim as he leapt off Toothless, firing at Jezebel who barely managed to duck before the bolt hit the force field again. Another explosion went off, and this time, the energy swirling around Jezebel wavered and took more than a couple seconds to replace itself.

Jezebel noticed the same thing, and she looked up, her eyes widening first in shock, and then in fear. I looked at Hiccup, and then at Framherja, and at that point the realization hit me.

The weapon that formed the amulet was trapped, and so could not be used to destroy Jezebel’s necklace, but there was a second option. Framherja was built using Mjollnir, and she wielded the same power, the same key.

“That’s it!!” I exclaimed loudly, causing Hiccup to jump and look at me in confusion. “What?” “The key, the key to beating Jezebel!” I started to explain. “Your bow is the key! The amulet was made by the weapon that shares power with Framherja, so it can be broken with the same power! You have to shoot the amulet!”

Hiccup raised an eyebrow, taking a moment as Ember and Orha took up the job of distracting Jezebel with their firepower. “That’s easier said than done Hawken,” he deadpanned. I shrugged. “All you need is the right distraction. Toothless, get to the other side of the clearing, wait for my signal.” <On it,> the Fury said, taking off and gliding around the edge of the clearing, while I sent a signal to Ember as well, who passed the message to Orha.

Jezebel was on her feet and focused on the two of them, so I lobbed a stream of fire in her direction, focusing her on us. She responded by concentrating the energy around her again, firing spheres of explosive light in our direction and forcing Hiccup and I to dive out of the way. I rolled to my feet first and released a cloud of Mist Dragon fire, obscuring the sorceress’s view, before sending signals to Toothless and Orha, who leapt up and fired on Jezebel, drawing her attention to them next. Ember jumped in, loading her arrows and setting the tips alight as she fired, dividing Jezebel’s attention between three different targets. It wasn’t going to be perfect, but with enough power stretched thin, with those three and I firing in unpredictable sequences, we drew on Jezebel’s strength, waiting, watching until…

Until her field fell just far enough, and I could see the amulet catch the light when Jezebel turned back toward Hiccup and I, unaware how low her power was at that moment. I gave a slight nod to Hiccup, who in one clean move drew up Framherja, aimed, and fired.

The bolt did not hit dead on, but it was close enough. A brilliant outburst of almost chartreuse green light erupted outward, and what remained of Jezebel’s field vaporized, along with a small portion of the collar of her robe. Through the light I saw the amulet shatter, the pieces dissolving into smoke, and … _something_ rippled through the air, racing outward and vanishing from sight amongst the backdrop of trees and snow around us. Then, the meadow cleared, and a dead silence overtook the scene.

Jezebel reached up and felt around her neck, discovering what was now quite apparent: the amulet was gone, along with the inset and a good portion of the chain that once held it. She whipped around and glared at Hiccup, eyes burning. “What have you done?!!” she screamed, vibrating with rage. Hiccup gave a look in my direction, and I pulled out my swords as a cue. He mirrored with Framherja, aiming back at Jezebel and on defense. Then, he pulled something that was completely his style.

“What did I do? I got rid of that ugly stone you were wearing,” he replied. “Honestly Jezebel, green really isn’t your color.”

Jezebel gave out a murderous yell and pulled out a sword again, pointing it first at Ember, who flew backward as an unseen force hit her and plowed through the dirt, and then the blade aimed toward Orha, who was readying a fireball but instead found himself mirroring what happened to Ember. Then Jezebel turned toward Hiccup and I again, angry red flashing in the trails of energy and light that began dancing along her fingers. Toothless gave a screech and came at her from behind, only to be flipped over and dropped to the ground, hard.

I charged up a lightning bolt at the same time as Hiccup fired, but Jezebel’s sword flashed and the attacks ricocheted, taking out a nearby pine tree. Then the sorceress waved her hand toward both of us.

Hiccup yelped as something hit both of us, hard, and he went skidding back as I dug my feet firmly into the ground. I threw up my own force field over both of us, before whatever force Jezebel was using cracked it like glass. Suddenly she was an arm’s length away, rearing back and landing a punch directly to my nose, a blow far stronger than it should have been. The phrase “seeing stars” suddenly made sense as I flew back, pain exploding from my face and back as I hit ground.

The others incapacitated as they were, and me suddenly too out of it to make sense of anything and fight back, I looked up weakly as the hazy image of Jezebel appeared. She grinned, spun her sword, and drove the point down like lightning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, I do love cliffhangers...  
> And, we welcome back a character from Book 2, though in a very different capacity from then.


	19. The Warriors' Return

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At this point in writing, I began doing some thing different. Intermittent back then, but it's become a staple now, and that is adding in an original poem (or, far less commonly, a song excerpt) to the starts of chapters. I would love to know what people think of them.

_A thousand years of vengeance wrought_

_Against the tales that time forgot_

_Yet for all that evil hands have burned_

_Peace restored by warriors’ return_

My eyes closed out of the instinctive fear not to see the point of my own death, but within the darkness I’d placed over myself the agony of the sword’s blow never came. Instead, a savage, feral snarl sounded followed by Jezebel’s cry of surprise, and something big passed over my head.

Still afraid my end was about to come even if by another cause, I slowly opened my eyes and took in the sight of a massive wolf, twice the size of a normal animal, pinning the sorceress to the ground. Above our heads, a swarm of low clouds had gathered out of nowhere as well, and great streaks of lightning played across the sky like a firework display, raking the air with explosions of thunder and great spears of light penetrating the forest behind me. Slowly, I sat up in shock, and my head turned to glance behind me. Nearby Hiccup had also gotten back up, and was scrambling to Toothless both for support and to protect the dragon, as the sight before us was something to behold.

A band of people stood at the ready by the edge of the clearing, all of them dressed in similar outfits of thick leathers and immaculately reflective metal adornments. One man who stood a little closer to us brandished a hammer covered in ornate designs and alive with electrical energy, and the older man and woman who stood slightly behind him drew swords that almost rippled with iridescent rainbows of color. Six others stood armed to the teeth behind the three. On top of that, there was the wolf that stood atop Jezebel, also bearing a similarly designed metallic collar and head armor.

I blinked as the pieces fell together, and it clicked as to who exactly it was that now stood before us.

The man with the hammer spun the weapon in his hand, aiming the blunt head toward Jezebel as the wolf stepped away. Lightning snaked down from the clouds above and encircled the weapon, before firing forward and striking the sorceress off guard and sending her flying into a tree. She hit, and crumpled to the ground, robes smoking. The band of warriors moved forward, passing Hiccup and I with barely a glance before surrounding Jezebel. As they did so, keeping themselves preoccupied, I stood shakily to my feet and stumbled over to Ember, helping her stand up and healing the sprained ankle she’d received in the attack.

“Still up to the same antics so many years later, Jezebel?” The words of the older man holding the iridescent sword drew our attention back to the newcomers. At this point I noticed the presence of an eyepatch across his left eye. He continued when there was no reply. “After how many battles we fought, after all this time you still manage to forget you always lose sooner or later. You’ve pushed yourself too far, next time may well be fatal.”

Jezebel staggered to her feet, groggy from her introduction to the pine tree, and slurred back, “I…managed to… rule for nearly 900 years…without you in the way.”

At this point it finally hit me, even though I’d known the fact for a while now: Jezebel had been around since the second century AD had begun in this world, so she was more than a sorceress, she was ancient. I glanced back at Ember, who simply nodded back toward the visitors.

The man with the eye patch reached forward with his left arm, grabbing Jezebel by the hem of her robe. “Then it is far past time this endeavor of yours ended,” he said. Rivulets of light flowed across his skin, and then over Jezebel’s neck, the sorceress’s eyes widening for a moment and she started to protest and scream. Then her eyes rolled back and she fell limp, unconscious and at the mercy of all who were there.

“Now without you in the picture, your empire will crumble shortly, taken back by the rightful owners of that land while you suffer for your crimes in a distant wasteland,” the eye-patch man professed, turning to face us. He began to speak, before the sound of frantic wings behind us interrupted him.

“Hawken! Hiccup! We saw lightning, and thought you…” Astrid’s yelling died back as she and the other teens following behind her laded their dragons, taking in the sight of the group who now held Jezebel in their custody. “Oookay, who are these guys?” she asked instead, eyeing the warriors with little attempt to hide her suspicion. I turned back to them, hoping for a clear answer to my theory as well. Once more the man with the eye patch stepped forward slightly, bowing in both respect and introduction.

“Forgive us our brash intrusion, as this certainly is not the greatest instance for how-do-you-do’s. But if you were fighting against Jezebel you may count us as friends.”

Snotlout replied before anyone else could say anything. “Oh yeah? Prove it,” he said. The man looked at him, somewhat perturbed by such a brash attitude, but nonetheless turned to look at the rest of his group, an unspoken question asked. The others nodded, and the man smiled, turning to face away from all of us and raising up his free hand, opening it wide.

I jerked backward involuntarily as the air itself seemed to shatter, shards of light erupting out of nowhere and swirling outward, bending perception and arranging loosely into a circular shape, the space within clouded with light. After a moment I realized it was similar to, if not quite the same as, the appearance of the portal that connected our two worlds together.

The man took Jezebel in both hands then and, none too gently, tossed her into the swirling light, the sorceress passing through and disappearing from sight. Then he waved his hand again and the portal collapsed inward, the air bending back to normal and the light vanishing. Just like that, our fight was over. Completely.

As he turned back to face us, I gestured weakly to the open air. “You…you can create portals,” I stated, rather bluntly. The man’s eyebrows rose in mild surprise. “You know about portals?” he asked. “I thought…I thought we were the only ones who…”

He trailed off as he looked me up and down, scrutinizing me. “Are you a gifted as well?” he queried. I glanced around me, silently asking the others if I should answer. They were as clueless about this situation as I was however. But, if my theory about who these people were was correct, my reply certainly wouldn’t lead to anything worse than what had just transpired.

Taking a deep breath, I nodded. “I-I guess, if you want to label it like that,” I said, smiling slightly as my eyes took on the appearance of the Night Fury’s nearby.

There was a silent, awkward moment before a smile broke across the faces of all the newcomers. “Well, then you are certainly among friends,” the man assured. “My name is Odin Asgard, and this,” he gestured to the rest of the newcomers, “is my family. We were once the protectors of all Europe, before Jezebel used the amulet on us.” He turned to look at Hiccup, who had frozen still as a statue, no doubt because of the name this man had just used for himself. “Are you alright?” he asked.

“You…you said you were Odin,” Hiccup stammered. “Yes,” Odin said slowly. “Do you know of me?” Hiccup opened his mouth to reply, but his search for words came up fruitless. I smirked slightly and stepped in for him.

“You’ll have to forgive my friends’ shock here,” I said, gesturing to the fact that Hiccup was not the only person to have frozen in surprise. “However, during Jezebel’s time the Norse people of this region were led to believe you were gods. The tales of your heroics were stretched and embellished for centuries. Ironically it’s similar to where I come from, so I know at least a handful of your names.” Gesturing to the man who held the hammer, I continued. “They call you Thor, wielder of the weapon Mjollnir. And you,” I nodded to the man next to him, who was dressed in dark robes and bore a head of slick black hair, “I will hazard a guess that you are Loki. According to the myths they paint you as a trickster and mischief maker.”

Thor immediately burst out laughing as Loki frowned. “I guess your impression never changed, eh brother?” he joked, nudging the dark haired one in jest. “I am still a fighter and true to cause as the rest of you,” Loki snapped back, fists clenching slightly.

Sensing a sibling brawl building already, Odin held up his hand. “Peace you two. Jezebel wished to destroy our reputation, throw us into imagination; it’s nothing more than that.” He looked back at me, then to Hiccup again, and his eyes lit up. I followed his gaze, finding that he had focused on Framherja, still in Hiccup’s grip. “Ah, and I see that our bow finally found a proper owner,” he laughed. “I don’t know your names yet but I would say you have the makings already of a powerful team. We may not be needed much longer.”

“Uh I-I think that might be getting ahead of ourselves here,” Hiccup spluttered. “We’re not perfect yet, and had our attempt not worked Jezebel would have taken us out. I’m quite sure you’re still needed here, e-especially since we don’t travel very far from home.”

“Everyone makes mistakes,” the woman next to Odin spoke up, smiling knowingly. “We fall short every now and then; after all, it was our fault Jezebel got ahold of the gem, as well as the fact that time has not advanced as far as it should have here.”

“What, exactly, do you mean by that?” Ember queried, finally making herself heard as she slowly moved over to Orha. “We mean that it has not been only 1100 years since Messiah walked the earth,” the woman said. “Before she entrapped us, Jezebel managed to wipe out several centuries of history from the records of this earth. It has been over two thousand years since the new era of time began.”

Silence returned for a few more moments, then Astrid, who had gotten off Thorn and joined Hiccup, turned to me with a confused expression. “H-Hawken, didn’t you say it was, I think, the year 2014 in your world? She asked. I nodded, noting the realization that was dawning on her face at the same rate as me. “And…and the last traders said it was something like 1170 AD here, so that means….” She trailed off.

Then it hit all of us. “We’re supposed to be in the same year?!” Hiccup exclaimed. I nodded slightly, still processing the same info. Talk about war bringing up old secrets; both our worlds should have been at the same pace this whole time! And yet, Hiccup’s was still in the Middle Ages. That said a lot about the amount of power Jezebel had controlled, and at the same time it also explained exactly how she’d had access to the technology for making bombs.

I looked around. Though I felt still like I had a million volts coursing through me, I also felt winded, and this new revelation wasn’t helping. And from the looks of my friends, they felt the same.

“Look, uh, this is a lot to process,” I said. “And I feel like we’re rambling a bit here, and you all have not had proper introductions yet. So, uh, how about we go find somewhere else to settle all this?” Nods of agreement and relief swept through the gang, and after a few moments of seemingly silent conversation, the warriors nodded in agreement as well. “After all this it would be wise to meet in a proper hall, with the leaders of this place,” Odin agreed. “After all, there is much to discuss.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome the source of the Norse myths and legends...some of them, at least. We'll be seeing them and arcs related to them in the future as well, get ready.


	20. Story of Asgard

It was a few hours after the battle had ended. The soldiers that still survived had been confined to the single remaining ship that floated intact in the harbor as well as within the cells of the Training Ring. There were casualties on our side as well however; when we had returned to the village Astrid had informed me that Einarr Hrolfson had been standing practically on top of one of the remaining bombs when it went off, and unfortunately the blasts had still left ten foot craters despite my stunt. They had found his axe nearby.

Bertha had lost one of her generals, and several of the Meathead warriors had been taken down by the aerial attacks before things had been put under control. There would be several pyres set out to sea that evening, however in total we had lost very little compared to our enemy; years of fighting had made the Vikings some of the best warriors in existence.

Thanks to the stunt I’d pulled with the bombs, the whole village and the rest of our allies were too hyper to relax or feel terribly somber, so for the first time since I could remember we began a celebration instead of immediately rebuilding. Okay, so first we dealt with the rest of Jezebel’s surviving minions, as well as Alvin and the few men he had with him, whom we’d found sneaking through the forest as we returned. From the looks of their clothes and remaining armor, it was apparent Spitfire had done his job well.

After everything settled, which probably wouldn’t be for a couple days, we would be sending Alvin with the Meatheads, and the rest of the soldiers would be left on their remaining ships and set to drift at the ocean’s mercy. Everyone else, meanwhile, crowded into the Great Hall to drink and listen in on the story our newcomers had to tell: the warriors who had been trapped by Jezebel.

“So, you say you are truly Odin, the one whom our legends speak of?” Stoick queried, leaning forward skeptically.

We were seated around the central firepit: the teens and their dragons, the tribal leaders, and a few of the higher council members of Berk. Around us, the rest of the crowd who weren’t listening in were busy drinking themselves silly.

Odin nodded, smiling slightly as he raised his given mug of mead in acknowledgement. “According to what your friend here told us,” he said, gesturing to me, “I am. However, before we say much more perhaps it would be best if we all properly introduced ourselves.” He stood up and gestured to the rest of his companions as well as the wolf who had come in with them, and they stood up as well. “We called ourselves the Asgardians, modified after our last name, and we were the protectors of most of Europe before we were removed from this world. You already know my name, Odin, and I am the patriarch and leader. I can create portals between any place, for near-instantaneous travel, and I can send people into altered states of mind, unconscious or manipulated perception for example.” He nodded to his family, and stepped back, saying, “I will let the rest introduce themselves.”

The first woman who held the sword matching Odin’s stepped forward first, bowing, her thick, wavy reddish hair falling forward slightly. “My name is Freyja, Odin’s wife,” she introduced. Immediately she paused, seeing ripples of confusion run through her audience.

“There, uh, must have been more stretching of the truth then,” Camicazi noted. “I was always told your name was Frigga, and that you two had a daughter named Freyja.” Freyja nodded in understanding. “I see. Well, after 900 years or so I am quite sure everything is distorted. Your people believed once that we were gods, after all.” Cami nodded, sitting back again.

Freyja cleared her throat. “As you have a friend already who is a protector, or guardian, or whatever it is you might call him, you might surmise that we all have some form of God-given ability, some more noticeable than others.” She smiled, and put her hands to her sides, and suddenly everything changed about her. She appeared as a different person, dark-skinned with black flowing hair and deep blue eyes. Then she changed back just as quickly.

“I am a master of disguise and stealth, and gifted with battle skills and strategy. I am also a healer, among other things,” she elaborated, smirking at the looks of shock on the faces of Stoick, Gobber, and most notable, Thuggory. I sighed as I looked at each of them as well. “Oh, come on, this shouldn’t be that much of a surprise to you by now,” I deadpanned. Freyja chuckled. “Perhaps it is simply because it is something you do not have,” she said. I shrugged. “Changing appearance and healing isn’t new around here, though to different people may be.”

Freyja nodded, eyes curious, but stepped back to her seat as Thor moved up next. “I am sure you all know who I am then,” he said, holding up Mjollnir with a smile. “I am Thor, gifted with control of electrical power, flight and, to some extent, weather manipulation. My weapon Mjollnir is an enhancing conduit to these powers.” He looked to the man behind him, someone I didn’t immediately recognize, and gestured up before taking his own seat again.

“I am Heimdall,” the newest introduced, “younger brother of Odin. I am gifted with visions and dreams, which show me events that are to come. I am also a smith, forger of the weapons we wield, including Mjollnir and Framherja.”

“Ooohhhh, can you make other weapons as well?” Snotlout butted in. “I lost my club in the battle and-Ooowww!! Hey!” he yelped as Astrid dug an elbow into his ribs. “Apologies, he’s unfortunately always like this,” she deferred. “Believe me, I understand completely,” Heimdall replied with a smile. “Every group has one. And I only forge such weapons when the need is great for them. Ours were made in the midst of war.”

Loki was next, and I was rather keen to hear what his part in this was, considering the dark image every tale painted him in. “I am Loki, son of Odin and brother of Thor. And I need to dispel a myth that seems to have been overlaid on my image,” he said. “I am not a villain, not in actions or in mind, and I am as good a man as the rest of my family. Jezebel hated me greatly because I was one of the few of us she could never gain foothold against in a fair fight.”

“You are rather prone to pranks and sleight of hand however,” Thor intoned with a snicker. “Oh would you be quiet and let me speak?” Loki snapped. “I recall you were the one who hid Sif’s knives in the outhouse for a whole”-

“Boys!” Freyja snapped, but the giggles were already running through the crowd from the quibble. I chuckled and leaned over to Hiccup. “Gee, can you tell that they’re siblings?” I whispered. He snorted in response and tried to hide a grin.

Loki righted himself and smiled however, shaking it off. “As I was saying before I was interrupted, I do like a good joke every now and then, but who doesn’t? It’s not healthy to go around with a sour attitude all the time after all,” he explained. “I have the ability to create illusions and holograms, sometimes physical objects, as well as limited teleportation and telekinesis. That’s the power to move things with only your mind if you didn’t know. Observe.” He turned and, grinning, lifted his hand slightly, proceeding to make Thor leave the ground and slowly turn upside down.

“Hey, hey hey! Put me down or I swear I’ll-ooff!” As requested Loki dropped him, though not before righting his brother so he hit feet first. Then, the black-haired sibling proceeded to vanish from sight.

“I certainly wouldn’t use your lightning in here with all these people, brother,” Loki’s voice joked from behind us. We turned to see him standing, arms crossed and smiling like my sister would, against a table behind our little crowd. Those who had been sitting there jumped with shock, before simply brushing it off and returning to their drinks.

“Alright, enough of you two,” Odin snapped, rubbing his forehead. “One would think 900 years of being stuck in one place together would make you two at least a little more hospitable to each other.” He waved to the remaining four in the group. “Let’s finish introducing ourselves before any fights actually start, and so we can explain what has transpired.” The remaining people nodded, and all four stepped forward together.

“We present: Lady Sif and the warriors three!” the heavier set of them introduced jovially. “I am Volstag, and this here is Fandral and our adopted brother Hogun. We are all warriors with gifts of speed and strength, though Sif here is also mildly telepathic.”

“Tele-what?” Tuffnut wondered. “Telepathic,” Sif replied, smiling almost knowingly. “It means I can more or less read your mind.”

Immediately both Tuffnut and Snotlout shrank away from the table slightly, their cheeks blushing bright red. “Uh huh,” I muttered, reaching over with a thin tail and smacking them in the back of the head. Somehow, I knew exactly what had been running through their heads as well.

Lastly, after all the warriors took their seats once more, the wolf who had been lying patiently nearby stood up and walked over to the stone pit, leaping up in full view of everyone. I noticed he still wore the head armor I had first seen him with. “I am Fenrir, one of the symbols of our team,” he spoke, articulating in a deep, yet smooth voice. “I am a translator of languages, both written and spoken and of any species.”

All us teens remembered Aslan and Reepicheep from our adventure to Narnia, so a talking wolf didn’t faze us as much. The adults around us however rocked back in surprise. I smirked at their reaction, before smiling genuinely. “Well, it’s a pleasure to finally know you all properly, especially seeing as you may well have saved my life and those of my friends,” I said. “I think, then, that it’s our turn to introduce ourselves.” I turned, facing the gang. “We, uh, don’t have a name for our group, and personally I think it’s a little too cliché. But, this is who we are.” I held out my hand, gesturing to each.

“This is Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, heir to the chiefdom of this village, ender of the dragon war in this archipelago, and accomplished inventor.” I grinned at his blushing face. “And yes, Hiccup, that was necessary. This is Astrid Hofferson, accomplished warrior, and Camicazi Terevson, heir to the chiefdom of our allies here the Bog Burglars. Those two are Ruffnut and Tuffnut, our resident troublemakers, Snotlout, Fishlegs our resident encyclopedia (Snotlout started laughing at that before Astrid thumped him on the head), and Thuggory there is son of the chief of the Meathead tribe.”

Then I turned to our dragons. “Toothless is a Night Fury, Hiccup’s companion. Thorn is with Astrid, Stormfly to Camicazi, Barfbelch to the twins, Meatlug is Fishlegs’ Gronckle, and Fireworm is Snotlout’s. And last but not least, our latest arrivals,” I turned, facing them. “Ember here set off this whole chain of events, the reason why Jezebel came here and was defeated. Her Shadowracer Orhaganuz helped her end the war that had been occurring with the dragons where they lived, and Ember was born with gifts.” Ember waved her hand softly, hair glowing faintly as she smiled.

Loki turned to me. “And who are you exactly, might we ask?” he queried. “You’ve been doing a lot here I noticed, but you don’t look to be Viking in origin.” I chuckled and nodded. “No, you’re right. My name is Hawken, and I am a protector of two worlds.”

“Two worlds? You are not from this earth?” Thor interjected. I shook my head. “No. There is a connection, a portal between my home and this island, not far from here. I watch both. My home is as far along technologically as this one should be.” Thor nodded in understanding. “I see. And what is it you were given as a gift? You seem very young for such a thing, and so far all we’ve seen is your eyes changing color.”

I laughed again and spread out my arms, rivulets of fire and electricity igniting and flowing in swirling patterns around them, and I spread a pair of Night Fury wings behind me. “A couple years ago I was given this by a dragon that lived here,” I explained. “Any dragon that was, is, or as far as I can tell even imagined I can become or utilize their abilities.”

“You received your power from the same line as the Mystique then?” Freyja spoke up. “She was alive when we were still around many years ago; I had assumed it would be passed to another dragon.” I shook my head. “No, she passed it to me. I’m surprised, didn’t know they lived that long.” Freyja nodded. “Yes, that race is rare, but long lived.”

“Perhaps though we should move on to the real reason we are here,” Odin spoke up, standing. “Stoick, Bertha, Mogadon, and forgive me if I have stumbled on your names as I’ve only heard them once earlier, you were drawn into a war that started long ago. I think you at least deserve to hear why it happened.” The three nodded, and Stoick leaned forward, speaking, “Yes, you have the floor now. Please continue.” Odin nodded, clearing his throat before he began.

* * *

“Nearly 900 years ago, this world was on the verge of a turning point,” he explained. “The Roman and Persian empires had long since fallen into disarray, and the Crusaders of the time were just beginning their endeavors in Iberia. For a short period of time the land that had been set aside as Israel saw peace. We started out a family well removed from these events, being simple traders along the North Sea. Our life did not stay simple for long however, as we were one day approached by another group of guardians, ones who were nearing the end of their days, and they chose us to be the new bearers of their power. At the time, we were caretakers of an injured wolf and a young sea serpent, and until then animal protectors were nearly nonexistent, save for a lion that lived across the sea and a handful of dragons like the one whose power you hold,” he gestured to me. I nodded. “Yes, we’ve met the lion too actually,” I commented. “That’s where we gained Framherja from.” Odin nodded, slightly surprised. “It shocks me he is still around then, as he’d been in place for centuries already when we met him.

“However, back to the point: Fenrir and the serpent were a bit of a new experiment, to see if other species could withstand being brought into sentience and with power. It worked out well, and indeed Fenrir has helped us greatly when dealing with dragons and far-off countries where the common-tongue is not so common.

“Europe at the time was overall under a great deal of unrest, though, and rulers began to rise who did not appreciate how we were keeping the peace. We do not know who, and at this point it no longer matters, but someone sent a message out requesting aid against us. Jezebel was the one who answered that call. She came to us in the guise of a young woman in need of help in straightening out her homeland. She wove an elaborate tale of invading armies who possessed advanced weaponry, chemical weapons and war machines beyond what had yet been seen elsewhere.”

At this point Odin reached down and pulled something out of a pocket on his outfit. “At that time, our group included not only the serpent but one other, my youngest daughter Aurianna. When she was gifted it manifested unique, a power unlike any other we had ever heard of or seen.” He held up the object in his hand, a nearly perfectly round, flawless sapphire-looking stone. “Aurianna could meld various forms of energy with metals and minerals, causing them to become entirely new entities, powerhouses or weapons in and of themselves. The one I hold here, when activated, produces a barrier field of sorts around its wearer.

“Jezebel focused greatly on my daughter. Her ability allowed her ‘devices’ to work away from her, and continuously so long as they were not overused. This means once enhanced, the gems and metals can be wielded by anyone. The sorceress led us to the Arabian Peninsula, and convinced us to let her use Aurianna’s weapons. One of them was the jewel you destroyed earlier; Aurianna had used the hammer Mjollnir to bond electrical energy with an emerald. However we had not yet had time to test what it did. Only shortly earlier had we left Framherja with Aslan, and immediately we had been pulled away by Jezebel.

“The sorceress figured out what the device did however: when activated the emerald would create a tear of sorts in space, similar to the portals I wield, and whatever it was aimed at would be ripped from this dimension, and trapped between worlds. Jezebel stole the jewel, and the inset Aurianna had built for it, but did not use it right away. Instead, first she created a distraction we sent the serpent to investigate, and used other gems to outfit an army of her own. We clashed on that barren peninsula only shortly after.

“Dozens of battles were fought, but at the time Jezebel was inexperienced and though powerful she did not know how to use her black magic. For that reason we held her back, forcing her to take drastic measures. One day, she finally managed to kidnap Aurianna, and used her to bring the rest of us to a corner we could not leave from.”

Odin shook his head, memories rushing back to him. “I should have seen it coming, but we had grown overconfident and our concern for Aurianna overran our senses. We ended up in a small room with Jezebel, Aurianna nowhere to be seen, and the sorceress activated the emerald. A great light erupted and then, only the faintest sound and glimpses of the outside world for centuries.”

Odin gestured to Hiccup, who still carried Framherja slung over his shoulder. “As you know by now I am sure, Framherja wields a similar power as Mjollnir, if admittedly sourced differently. The devices Aurianna builds can only be deactivated or reversed if the energy source used is present. We gave the bow to Aslan because we had not figured out who could use it yet; many of Heimdall’s weapons are person-specific, working only for those they are built for, but we were afraid at the time that someone else could figure out how to undo that property. We did not know we were getting rid of the key Aurianna would need to undo the gem’s capacity. Because of that, we were cut off from her immediately, along with the rest of the world.”

Sitting down slowly, Odin shook his head sadly. “Jezebel is not a kind or remorseful person, and Aurianna was left completely at her mercy, as was the serpent. Jezebel hunted certain kinds of dragon that she felt threatened her, those she couldn’t persuade to join her; they included the Night Furies, common back then, and Stormcutters, but there was a schism in the sea serpents. Some, like ours, could not be swayed. Others she brought to her side, and there they have likely stayed since.

“It has also been hundreds of years, and while Jezebel has her dark magic that keeps her alive and in her prime, Aurianna...had…”

He wasn’t able to finish the sentence, breaking down into a sob as he mourned for his daughter, the first time he’d had a chance in centuries. The rest of us averted our eyes, standing to the side silently as the rest of Odin’s family offered comfort or shared the grief that only now hit them in full.

Eventually, Odin stood again, wiping his eyes and composing himself. “Let us move on from that topic,” he suggested, smiling weakly and reaching into his cloak once more. From pockets inside he removed a few small bags, as Freyja, Volstag and Loki did the same. “You all have done a great service for my family, and you have been through a great deal you should not have. In return, I have a gift for you all.” He turned and began to hand the bags out, one each to Hiccup, Astrid, Ember, Thuggory and the other teens. “We were on a collection trip before our final battle with Jezebel, but these are no longer of use to us. They are, however, of great worth in other ways.”

He turned next to Stoick and the other chiefs, also handing them larger cloth bundles. “And these to you, leaders of your people, for your tribes having the courage to face Jezebel and her army.”

I heard gasps and glanced at the teens, who were pulling out of their bags huge gems, each one immaculate in condition: blue diamonds and sapphires, rich red rubies, and others. I raised an impressed but skeptical eyebrow. “You just made them all rich, you know,” I commented. Freyja laughed nearby as she drew up to Odin, and they both turned to me. “Yes, we have,” she replied, smiling. Then, she pulled out one last bag, no larger but slightly heavier looking, and handed it to Odin as the stepped toward me.

“For you, Hawken, we have a gift as well,” Odin continued. “You carry a great power, and therefore a great deal of responsibility rests on your shoulders. No less so when two separate realms have been put under your care.” He smiled again. “We all know well here that to be able to stand under such pressure requires a sturdy support, and with any luck this may help you build that support.” He handed me the bag, then pulled out a small metallic cylinder, of the same quality as the metal shards lying around the village, and handed it to me. On the sides in several rows were Hebrew letters. “We are often a great distance away when help is required, so if we may be needed here again, align the letters so that they glow, and send us a message.”

I nodded, putting the items he’d handed to me away to scrutinize later, then turned to see Odin and his family stand and gather together. “It is about time we leave to rebuild our own home,” he said. “900 years and it is likely we will have to start from the ground up. Stoick, Bertha, Hawken: farewell, and God be with you through your years.”

He waved his hand and the air rippled open again, glowing as the portal formed. Then one by one they each stepped through, Loki being the last to leave and giving a joking, but genuine, salute as he stepped through, and no sooner than he did so than the portal collapsed, closing up as if it, and the Asgardians, had never been there.

“So…what now?” Snotlout asked after a moment of “silence.” I turned to glance at Stoick, who had unwrapped the package he’d been given. In his hands were a set of solid blocks, each a different precious metal. In Bertha and Mogadon’s hands were similar bars. Stoick looked at them, before a smile grew and he belted out a laugh. “What now? Ah, trading will be good for us this year! Now we look forward to the future!” he proclaimed.

I nodded in agreement. “Yes, I don’t think supplies will be an issue for a while. But, before we get too far ahead of ourselves, are we sure we’ve run through all the details for what to do with the prisoners we have?” Stoick nodded. “Aye, we’ve figured it all out. Jezebel’s lackeys will be sent off tomorrow, and when Mogadon leaves he’ll take Alvin with him. In the meantime, let’s join the others in celebration for tonight!”

He and Bertha turned away, heading toward Gobber and the mead barrels, with Modagon shuffling off afterward, and I turned to face Hiccup and Astrid. He looked down at the bag that stuck out of my pocket. “So, what did he give to you, out of curiosity?” he asked. I shrugged and pulled the bag back out. “Eh, might as well find out, huh?” I drawled. Reaching in, I grabbed the first thing my hand touched….

…and pulled out a red diamond nearly the size of my fist. My eyes widened and, in shock, I felt myself start to go lightheaded. “Good Lord,” I managed to mutter before I unceremoniously slumped to the floor. The last thing I heard before I went out completely was Ruffnut yell, “No fair! He got the bigger one!”

* * *

Hiccup chuckled and shook his head in amusement before he glanced at Astrid. “Care to help me get him up to my house before the twins steal his diamond?” he joked. She nodded, grinning along with him. “Let’s. And actually, let’s do it before they steal the whole bag.”

They managed to get Hawken onto Toothless’ saddle, and the three of them flew up to Hiccup’s home. Once they’d settled him in the spare bed, Hiccup and Astrid stepped outside while Toothless curled up in Hiccup’s room, and the two Vikings sat down on the steps, staring out across the ocean. “Well, I don’t think Hawken will be complaining about that college expenses thing he’s been moaning about,” Hiccup drawled. Astrid huffed. “Tell me about it. Just that one jewel should set him up for life, if what he showed us before is accurate.” They both nodded, and stared out across the village again.

After a couple of minutes, Hiccup turned back to Astrid. “So, uh, do you think Jezebel will ever manage to find her way back?” he asked, breaking the silence. Astrid looked back at him, and smiled, punching him lightly in the shoulder. “Oh, come on, enjoy the peace for a bit will you, Mr. Doom and Gloom?” She laughed as Hiccup pouted, rubbing his arm, before leaning in toward him. “Besides, if she does, we’ll make sure we’re ready for her,” she reassured, pressing her lips against his and washing away his dark thoughts in an instant.


	21. Epilogue: What is to Come

_The present is a fickle thing_

_Never at peace, always in motion_

_The foundations of all life are frail_

_Able in a moment’s pace to be broken_

_So, when all things fall around you_

_Ask yourself, are you ready_

_For what is to come?_

A few days had passed and, Berk being Berk, everything was just about back to normal. The Bog Burglars and Meatheads had sailed off to their respective islands, the latter dragging along Alvin and his crew who would be spending some quality time in dark solitary cells, and the Hooligans were settling back down. After hundreds of years of rebuilding constantly after dragon raids, the Vikings were very well experienced with making their houses look ready to live in within a day or two, and the piles and shards of the odd metal remaining from the arrows and machines had been gathered up (carefully, especially after Tuffnut demonstrated just how effective the stuff was at cutting things) and deposited in the forge storehouse to be used for who-knows-what later, likely whatever Hiccup, Gobber and I could come up with. Last but not least the remaining men from Jezebel’s army had been sent off, with just enough to survive until they washed up along the mainland coast somewhere.

I hadn’t told anyone back at the house about the bag of jewels when I returned home, instead hiding them in the back corner of my closet until I could find a more suitable location or I felt they were needed. Frankly, with that much just handed off to me I didn’t really know what I could do with it, and it was something I just wasn’t quite ready to spring on my parents yet

During those few days everyone also got a LOT of work done. Save for my embarrassing fainting spell at the Great Hall, due to the stunt with the bombs no one actually slept for about three days straight. That’s great for people like the Hooligans, who had houses to build, stores to refill, etc., but not so great for the college kid who had finished all his work a week before. So, I focused on other little projects here and there and, after my parents got wind of the odd circumstance, I got stuck with household chores while everyone else slept. Oh well, it was over quickly enough and things returned to my version of normality by the middle of the week.

There were still a few issues to sort through though, like the case of misplaced Ember and Orha. After I got out of school, I stopped by to see them in the village.

“So, where are you going to be off to now?” I asked as I walked up to the two, both busy helping haul a cart up the street. “Since I doubt rogue sorceresses will be an issue for a while and her army is basically gone, are you planning on heading home, or…?” Ember glanced down at me, then up at the small house near Astrid’s that had been set up for her over the past couple months.

“I don’t think I’ll be leaving actually, so long as I’m welcome here,” she admitted. “I mean, save for some of the weather you guys get it’s rather nice, and other than the fact that Jerusalem is where I came from there’s nothing more for either of us there.” Ember glanced down at Orha, and a smile grew across her face. “And after all, with him back to normal we may both actually be of benefit around here now.”

“Meaning I would be doing all the work and you’d be getting a free ride around the village all the time, right?” Orha snarked back, but I could see the smile he had on too. I grinned at the pair, and nodded. “Oh, I’m sure Stoick and the rest of the village will find you welcome additions,” I reassured, before bidding farewell for the moment and leaving them to their task (and joking insults they threw at each other as they moved along).

My next quarry was Hiccup, and I flew off in search of him, but after a short search came up empty handed. It wasn’t much of a surprise though, as over the past few days he and Astrid had been making themselves scarce several times a day. I had talked to the chief about it, concerned the two may have been tampering with ideas that should be left for more appropriate circumstances, but he shrugged it off with a grin, no doubt planning on teasing his son with just that topic later, and mentioned that several supplies had vanished overnight as well. Rumor sprung up that the two had come up with some sort of project they were working on in secret in one of Hiccup’s many hideouts.

I set the matter off to the side for the time being, knowing I’d always be able to find the young inventor later on (and make him blush scarlet in punishment for disappearing), and instead turned my mind to the more daily nuances everyone has to take care of. 

* * *

A couple days later, I was in my room, door closed and blocked off as I sorted through the bag of minerals I’d been given, when I heard my mom call my name with one of those famous “urgent mother” tones. Immediately I put everything back in the bag and stored it away before walking out to find her staring as if lost at her phone.

“What happened?” I asked. She slowly turned her head up to look at me, then out the back window with worry. “We need to keep a close eye on everyone,” she said, “especially you and your sister with both of you out and about away from us every day.” “Why? Who called you?” I pressed.

She looked straight at me this time, and spoke a few words that set me on edge faster than the twins with a barrel of gunpowder. “That was the police. Malin disappeared from his cell a few days ago, and there is no trace of where he went.”

* * *

Jezebel groaned, and slowly rolled over, pressing her hands to the ground and pushing herself to her knees, before painfully standing upright. As she moved, the bruises on her sides protested and she winced, the result of a hard landing after being thrown through the portal. A quick wave of her hand however and the dark magic that flowed through her erased the wounds, and she looked around.

The sun blazed down from high ahead, and nothing but sand dunes and half-scorched shrubs could be seen scattered sparsely in every direction. It was certainly not where she had started out a few hours before, but Jezebel reasoned things could have ended even worse. The Asgardians had underestimated her once more; after nearly nine centuries on this planet, she had become well-traveled, and in but a few hours she would discover where they had dumped her.

Though she had lost the battle as well, Jezebel also had learned a thing or two about her new opponents. The girl, of course, could be rid of easily enough once removed from the group she’d attached herself to, and the dragon boy, for all his abilities, still had weaknesses and limits of both his power and his mind. Not to mention Jezebel was far from run out of surprises of her own just yet.

She grinned at the thought and, as if to prove her own point, drew out a small emerald gem, much like the one that the dragon whisperer Hiccup had destroyed earlier, and pressed down on the flat central face.

As the mineral began to glow, so did the sand around the sorceress’s feet, shifting and sliding over itself as is coalesced, a solid, floating platform. Jezebel stepped on to it, and the platform began to move, heading northward and traveling at a great speed across the desolate landscape.

Time was short, Jezebel knew, and she had much to gather together once more before the real battle commenced.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so finishes Book 4 of the Two Worlds Collide Series. If you're still with me, and willing to tag along, follow on to Book 5: Inheritance Past.


End file.
